Systems and methods for seamlessly outputting embedded media from a digital page on nearby devices most suitable for access

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for enhancing user experience in accessing media of a certain content type by outputting the media on a nearby device that is better suited for access. For example, a media guidance application may determine that a user is accessing, on his/her smartphone, a digital page (e.g., a website, a newsfeed, etc.) that features embedded content (e.g., photos, movies, music, etc.). In response to determining that the user has navigated to an embedded content, such as a video clip, the media guidance application may determine a device in the vicinity of the user that is better suited than the user&#39;s smartphone for playback of the video clip. For example, a nearby smart television may have a larger screen, better sound output, and a better display resolution than the smartphone. As a result, the media guidance application may cause the smart television to output the video clip.

BACKGROUND

In the related art, in response to receiving an instruction, a systemmay identify, from a group of devices in close proximity to the user, adevice that is associated with the instruction. The system may thencause the identified device to execute the user's instruction. However,the related art relies on the user to provide an explicit instruction(e.g., record, fast-forward, etc.) and identifies the device based onits relevance to the instruction (e.g., a set-top box playing a moviemay record the movie, given the instruction to record). The related artdoes not monitor for implicit triggers pertaining to accessing contentand does not identify an optimized access device, in the vicinity of theuser, that is technically capable for accessing the content andadequately oriented with respect to the user's perspective.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are thus described that address the limitations ofconventional media systems, specifically for enhancing user experiencein accessing media of a certain content type, by outputting the media ona nearby device that is better suited for access. For example, thesystems and methods may determine that a user is accessing, on his/hersmartphone, a digital page (e.g., a website, a newsfeed, etc.) thatfeatures embedded content (e.g., photos, movies, music, etc.). Supposethat a user is scrolling through his/her social media newsfeed. Inresponse to determining that the user has navigated to an embeddedcontent, such as a video clip, the systems and methods may determine adevice in the vicinity of the user that is better suited than the user'ssmartphone for playback of the video clip. For example, the smartphonemay be unable to play high-definition video, may have a small display,and/or may have other connectivity issues that are not found in a smarttelevision near the user. The smart television may have a larger screen,better sound output, and may have a better display resolution. As aresult, the systems and methods described may generate, for display, thevideo clip on the smart television.

In some aspects, a media guidance application may determine that a useris accessing, on first user equipment, a digital page comprising aplurality of embedded media assets. Examples of the first user equipmentinclude, but are not limited to, set-top boxes, smart displays,smartphones, laptops, and video game consoles. The digital page may be auser interface (UI) such as a website, a launcher (e.g., an Androidinterface with widgets), an application's UI, etc. The media assets ofthe digital page may include, but are not limited to, videos, photos,text, augmented reality simulators and video games. These media assetsare embedded in the digital page. This indicates that the user maydirectly access the media asset on the digital page, without having tobe redirected to a different digital page.

Suppose that the user is accessing a social media newsfeed (e.g., theFacebook newsfeed) on his/her smartphone. The media guidance applicationmay determine, using an activity monitor or a memory allocation system,that the user is accessing the Facebook application on his/hersmartphone. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayretrieve information from a pre-generated database that contains a listof applications that feature digital pages with pluralities of embeddedmedia assets. For example, the database may include Facebook. Therefore,the media guidance application may determine that the user is accessinga digital page on the Facebook application. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may monitor the user's screen and performimage processing (e.g., edge detection, segmentation, etc.) to identifysections of the screen. Suppose that the sections of the newsfeed areclassified, by the media guidance application, as “photo album” and“video.” In response to identifying multiple sections, the mediaguidance application may determine that the user is accessing a digitalpage with a plurality of media assets.

The media guidance application may determine that the user hasnavigated, on the digital page, to a position of an embedded media assetof the plurality of embedded media assets. In an overarching example,consider that the Facebook application being accessed on the user'ssmartphone features a vertical newsfeed. Therefore, the user may onlyscroll up or down to access the content on the digital page.Furthermore, the newsfeed may be organized analogous to a list (e.g.,one media asset after another). The order of the media assets may be:video, audio file, photo, and text.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user has navigated to the position of the embedded media asset byfirst identifying a display configuration of the first user equipment.For example, the display configuration may include the size of thedisplay, the shape, the resolution, the number of displays, etc. Themedia guidance application may then determine focus regions of a displayof the first user equipment, based on the display configuration. Forexample, suppose that the first user equipment has a camera input thatcan monitor the user's eye motion. The media guidance application mayidentify, by tracking the user's eye motion, a region of the displaythat the user is focusing on. In another example, the displayconfiguration may be a data structure that indicates areas of the screenthat users generally focus on (e.g., via collaborative filtering). Afocus region may be defined by the media guidance application as a shapeof a certain size that is located on the display (e.g., a circle with a3-cm radius and an origin point at the center of the display).

The media guidance application may then determine a layout of theplurality of embedded media assets on the display. For example, thelayout may represent the position of each embedded media asset of theplurality of embedded media assets on the digital page. Suppose that thedigital page is 5000 pixels in length and 1080 pixels in width. Thelayout may be a data structure that indicates, for each embedded mediaasset, the length and width of the section of the digital pagecontaining the embedded media asset and the center point of the section.For example, one of the embedded media assets may be a video titled“Avengers Infinity War Trailer.” The video may be contained in arectangular section of the digital page that is 640 pixels in length and1080 pixels in width. The center of the rectangular section may be 500pixels away from the top edge of the digital page and 540 pixels fromthe right edge of the digital page. Thus, the first entry of thelayout's data structure may be the array {embedded media asset 1, 640p,1080p, (500, 540)}. The media guidance application may retrieve metadataassociated with the digital page to identify the positions of eachembedded media asset and populate the layout's data structure. The mediaguidance application may also use image processing (e.g., edgedetection, segmentation, etc.) to automatically approximate thepositions of the embedded media assets.

The media guidance application may determine that the embedded mediaasset of the plurality of embedded media assets is in a first portion ofthe layout. For example, the media guidance application may identify therectangular section highlighted above (i.e., length: 640p, width: 1080p,center: (500, 540)) as the first portion of the layout. The mediaguidance application may then determine that the first portion of thelayout corresponds to a focus region of the first user equipment.Suppose that the focus region is in the center of the user's smartphonedisplay. The user may scroll down the digital page such that the firstportion containing the embedded media asset “Avengers Infinity WarTrailer” falls in the center of the user's smartphone display. Inanother example, the media guidance application may monitor the user'seye motion and determine a focus region accordingly. In this case, themedia guidance application may determine a first vector originating fromthe first eye of the user and a second vector originating from thesecond eye of the user. The respective vectors may represent a directionin which the eye is looking. The media guidance application may thendetermine an intersection of the vectors and determine whether theintersection occurs at the display of the first user equipment. Inresponse to determining that the intersection occurs at the display, themedia guidance application may determine the intersection point to be afocus region. In this example, if the first portion containing theembedded media asset exists at the focus region, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user is focused on embedded mediaasset. Thus, in response to determining that the first portioncorresponds to the focus region, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to theposition of the embedded media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user has navigated to the position of the embedded media asset byfirst determining a layout of the plurality of embedded media assetswith respect to the display. As previously discussed, the layout may bea data structure with information on the positions and display sizes ofthe embedded media assets of the plurality of media assets. The mediaguidance application may then determine whether the embedded media assetis obscured on the display, based on the layout. Suppose that the user'ssmartphone display can display 1080 pixels in width and 1920 pixels inlength. As described previously, the digital page may be 5000 pixels inlength. Thus, the display may not be able to display the entire digitalpage at once. The user therefore may be able to see only a limitednumber of embedded media assets at any given time and some embeddedmedia assets may be only partially visible (e.g., the user may need toscroll up to view the entire portion containing the embedded mediaasset). The media guidance application may determine an embedded mediaasset to be obscured if the embedded media asset is only partiallyvisible (e.g., cut off due to display size limitations), too small toadequately view (e.g., a small profile picture on a social feed post),blurred, etc.

In response to determining that the embedded media asset is notobscured, the media guidance application may determine a display size ofthe embedded media asset based on the layout. As previously mentioned,the media guidance application may retrieve information from thelayout's data structure. For example, the media guidance application mayaccess the first entry of the layout {embedded media asset 1, 640p,1080p, (500, 540)}, in response to determining that embedded media asset1 corresponds to “Avengers Infinity War Trailer.” The display size ofthe video, based on the first entry, is 640×1080. The media guidanceapplication may then determine whether the display size of the embeddedmedia asset is greater than or equal to a threshold size. The thresholdsize may be predefined and retrievable from the memory of the first userequipment (e.g., the user's smartphone). In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may set the threshold size to be the display sizeof the largest embedded media asset that is visible to the user on thedigital page at a given time. Suppose that the threshold size is500×500. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may convertthe respective display sizes to respective areas. For example, the areaof the embedded media asset may be 691,200 pixels squared, and the areaof the threshold size may be 250,000 pixels squared. In response todetermining that the display size is greater than the threshold size(e.g., based on the respective areas), the media guidance applicationmay determine that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to theposition of the embedded media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user intends to access “AvengersInfinity War Trailer” because the video is the largest unobscuredembedded media asset visible to the user on the digital page at a giventime.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user has navigated to the position of the embedded media asset byfirst determining that the user is scrolling through the plurality ofembedded media assets on the digital page. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect an input (e.g., touch, verbal, biometricresponse, etc.) requesting to navigate to a different position of thedigital page. For example, the media guidance application may detectthat the user has made physical contact with the touchscreen display ofthe user's smartphone and has made a scrolling motion (e.g., pressedupwards along the screen or flicked). The media guidance application maythen detect that the user has stopped scrolling at the position of theembedded media asset. For example, the user may stop scrolling (e.g.,release the physical contact from the touchscreen display) at theportion that contains “Avengers Infinity War Trailer,” as determined bythe layout of the plurality of embedded media assets. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the user has stopped scrolling for athreshold period of time. For example, the media guidance applicationmay monitor, using a timer, whether the user has provided further inputto navigate on the digital page. Suppose that the user remains on theportion containing “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” for 10 seconds. Themedia guidance application may continuously compare the amount of timethe user remains on the portion with the threshold period of time (e.g.,10 seconds). In response to determining that the user has stoppedscrolling for the threshold period of time (e.g., the amount of time theuser remains idle on the portion exceeds or equals the threshold periodof time), the media guidance application may determine that the user hasnavigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user has navigated to the position of the embedded media asset byfirst determining that the user is scrolling in a first directionthrough the plurality of embedded media assets on the digital page.Suppose that the user is providing navigation inputs on the digital pageusing physical contact on a touchscreen display. The user may pushupwards along the display screen to scroll down the display page. Themedia guidance application may determine the direction in which the useris pushing and the direction in which the digital page is moving. Thisdirection may be known as the first direction. The media guidanceapplication may detect that the user scrolled past the embedded mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may determine a focusregion on the display of the first user equipment. Suppose that thefocus area is represented by a circle at the center of the display witha radius of 3 centimeters. As the user scrolls along the display page,various embedded media assets may enter and exit the focus region. Themedia guidance application may determine that the user has scrolled pastan embedded media asset if it enters and exits the focus region duringone continuous input.

Subsequent to detecting that the user scrolled past the embedded mediaasset, the media guidance application may determine that the user isscrolling in a second direction, wherein the second direction is towardsthe embedded media asset. For example, the user may realize that he/shescrolled past content that he/she actually wants to access. The user mayprovide another input by pushing downwards along the display screen toreturn back to the content. The media guidance application may thusdetect that the scrolling is happening in an opposite direction. Themedia guidance application may determine that the user has stoppedscrolling at the position of the embedded media asset. For example, theembedded media asset may enter the focus region of the display, or maycome into view without being obscured on the display. In response todetermining that the user stopped scrolling at the position of theembedded media asset, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of theembedded media asset.

In response to determining that the user has navigated, on the digitalpage, to the position of the embedded media asset, the media guidanceapplication may identify a content type (e.g., video, audio, photo,etc.) of the embedded media asset. For example, the user may beaccessing a video titled “Avengers Infinity War Trailer.” The mediaguidance application may retrieve metadata associated with the embeddedmedia asset and/or the digital page. The metadata associated with thedigital page (e.g., the newsfeed) may indicate the plugins and processesrequired to generate, for display, an embedded media asset. For example,the “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” may be embedded in a built-in videoplayer that features modules/plugins for video playback of the newsfeed.The metadata associated with “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” mayindicate a video format (e.g., mp4, avi, etc.). Based on the metadata ofthe “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” and/or the newsfeed, the mediaguidance application may determine that the content type of the embeddedmedia asset “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” is “video.”

In some embodiments, the content type may be represented by a datastructure (e.g., an array, a linked list, etc.) with additional detailsabout the media content. For example, the metadata of “Avengers InfinityWar Trailer” may contain details about how the video is encoded (e.g.,H.264), the resolution range (e.g., from 480p to 1080p), the duration ofthe video, the frames per second, and the physical size of the video(e.g., 230 MB). The media guidance application may thus extract thesedetails from the metadata and place them in the entries of the datastructure.

The media guidance application may retrieve, from a data structure ofaccess setting recommendations, a recommended device configuration foraccessing the content type. The recommended device configuration mayalso be represented as a data structure that indicates recommendedhardware components (e.g., display, audio output, virtual realityheadset, etc.), processing recommendations (e.g., processor, memory,graphics, etc.), and software components (e.g., media player). Supposethat the content type is represented by an array {Video, H.264, 480p,1080p, 30 fps, 64 s, 230 MB}. The recommended device configuration mayconsist of predetermined optimized device settings for accessing thecontent type. The media guidance application may, for example, determinethe recommended device configuration to be {Hardware: [40-inch display,1080p capability, audio output], Processing: [2.4 GHz Dual CoreProcessor, 256 MB VRAM, 600 Mhz Core Clock, 4 GB RAM], Software: [H.264media player]}.

More specifically, the data structure of access setting recommendationsmay be divided as a binary decision tree. The top-most node may ask, “isthe content a video?” and if the answer is “yes,” the next node may ask“is the video encoded in H.264?”. This binary approach may then ask, “isthe minimum resolution 480p?”, “is the maximum resolution 1080p?”, “isthe duration greater than 60 s?”, “is the size greater than 200 MB?”,etc. After traversing through the binary decision tree, the mediaguidance application may arrive at the recommended device configuration{Hardware: [40-inch display, 1080p capability, audio output],Processing: [2.4 GHz Dual Core Processor, 256 MB VRAM, 600 Mhz CoreClock, 4 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}, for accessing thecontent type represented as {Video, H.264, 480p, 1080p, 30 fps, 64 s,230 MB}. It should be noted that the data structure of access settingrecommendations is not limited to a binary decision tree. For example,the data structure may be a regular decision tree, a lookup table, alinked list, etc. In the case of a lookup table, for example, the mediaguidance application may search for recommended device configurationsfor “Video,” recommended device configurations for “H.264,” recommendeddevice configurations for “480p minimum,” etc. The media guidanceapplication may then take all of the individual recommended deviceconfigurations and determine one recommended device configuration whereeach of the devices overlap. In this example, suppose that therecommended device configurations for “Video” are {Hardware: [11-inchdisplay, 240p capability, audio output], Processing: [1.2 GHz Dual CoreProcessor, 128 MB VRAM, 200 Mhz Core Clock, 0.5 GB RAM], Software:[media player]} and the recommended device configurations for “H.264”are {Hardware: [11-inch display, 240p capability, audio output],Processing: [1.5 GHz Dual Core Processor, 128 MB VRAM, 200 Mhz CoreClock, 1 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}; the media guidanceapplication may determine the overlap to be {Hardware: [11-inch display,240p capability, audio output], Processing: [1.5 GHz Dual CoreProcessor, 128 MB VRAM, 200 Mhz Core Clock, 1 GB RAM], Software: [H.264media player]}.

The media guidance application may then determine a first deviceconfiguration of the first user equipment. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the device analytics of the user'ssmartphone from the memory of the smartphone or the Internet. Supposethat the first device configuration is {Hardware: [5-inch display, 720pcapability, audio output], Processing: [1.9 GHz Dual Core Processor, 256MB VRAM, 500 Mhz Core Clock, 3 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}.

The media guidance application may determine a first access score basedon similarities between the recommended device configuration and thefirst device configuration. For example, the media guidance applicationmay compare the data structure of the recommended device configurationand the data structure of the first device configuration. It should benoted that both data structures may be of the same type (e.g., arrays,linked lists, stacks, etc.). The media guidance application may takevarious approaches to determine the first access score. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may run a modified distanceformula between the two data structures. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the difference array between therespective data structures is {Hardware: [−35-inch display, −360pcapability, 0], Processing: [−0.5 GHz Dual Core Processor, 0, −100 MhzCore Clock, −1 GB RAM], Software: [0]}. In this example, a “0” indicatesthat there is no difference, a negative number indicates that the actualdevice configuration entry is below the recommended device configurationentry, and a positive number indicates that the device configurationentry exceeds the recommended device configuration entry. The mediaguidance application may then normalize the difference array withrespect to the recommended device configuration. For example, the valueof −35-inch display may get divided by 40-inch display to yield −0.875.Applying this method to the other entries of the difference array, themedia guidance application may determine that the normalized differencearray is {Hardware: [−0.875, −0.33, 0], Processing: [−0.21, 0, −0.16,−0.25], Software: [0]}. The media guidance application may then sum thevalues of the normalized difference array to determine the first accessscore. For example, the first access score may be −1.825 based on thenormalized difference array above. It should be noted that a firstaccess score of “0” indicates that the first device configurationmatches the recommended device configuration exactly. A negative accessscore represents that the first device configuration is inferior to therecommended device configuration and a positive access score representsthat the first device configuration is superior to the recommendeddevice configuration.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may applypredetermined weights to each of the entries of the normalizeddifference array. The weights may represent an importance of the entry(e.g., from 0 to 1, with larger numbers representing a greater weight).For example, the weight of the RAM entry may be 0.5 and the weight ofthe processor entry may be 0.75. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may also do an initial scan through the normalizeddifference array for a value of “−1,” which may indicate that therecommended component is missing entirely. For example, if the firstuser equipment has no audio output component, the first deviceconfiguration value for hardware audio may be “0,” the difference arraymay thus indicate “-audio output,” and the normalized difference arraymay be “−1.” In response to detecting the absence of a component, themedia guidance application may determine that the user equipment is notcompatible with the content type and may automatically assign it withthe lowest access score possible.

The media guidance application may then transmit a discovery messagefrom the first user equipment. The payload of the discovery message mayinclude information on the first user equipment and/or the embeddedmedia asset. It should be noted that the discovery message may be sentby a third user equipment (e.g., a router) that serves as a bridge forthe communication between the first user equipment (e.g., the user'ssmartphone) and second user equipment. In response to transmitting thediscovery message, the media guidance application may identify thesecond user equipment. For example, the second user equipment (e.g., asmart TV) may receive the discovery message. In response, the seconduser equipment may send an acknowledgment message to the first userequipment. The acknowledgment message may include information about thesecond user equipment such as a device identifier (e.g., name), a devicetype (e.g., multimedia system, phone, display, etc.), authorized users,etc., and timestamps signifying when the discovery message was receivedand when the acknowledgment was transmitted.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify thesecond user equipment by first receiving acknowledgment messages from aplurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message. Forexample, the environment in which the user is located may have severaluser equipment devices in the user's vicinity. Accordingly, a pluralityof candidate devices may respond to the discovery message. Theacknowledgment messages may indicate the types of content each of theplurality of candidate devices is compatible with. Suppose that theplurality of candidate devices includes a Windows tablet, a MacBook, anAndroid TV, and an Amazon Echo. The media guidance application maydetermine, from each acknowledgment message, the type of device (e.g., atablet, a laptop, a smart TV and a smart speaker, respectively) and thetype of compatible content of the candidate device. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may determine, from the type of device,the type of compatible content associated with the candidate device. Forexample, a smart TV may be compatible with videos, visual games andaudio, whereas a smart speaker may be only compatible with audio-basedcontent. The media guidance application may thus identify, from theplurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that arecompatible with the content type of the embedded media asset. Aspreviously discussed, the user may be accessing the video “AvengersInfinity War Trailer.” Because the smart speaker may be incompatiblewith this content type, the subset of candidate devices may thereforeinclude the Windows tablet, the MacBook, and the Android TV.

The media guidance application may then, for each candidate device ofthe subset of candidate devices, determine a proximity to the user. Theuser's location may be determined by the media guidance application,based on the location of the first equipment device and the type ofdevice. Based on the type of device (e.g., a laptop, a phone, a speaker,etc.) the media guidance application may be able to determine whetherthe device is mobile or stationary. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that a mobile device such as a smartphone maybe held by the user. Therefore, using GPS coordinates of the smartphone,the media guidance application may also be able to approximate thelocation of the user. If the first user equipment is a stationary device(e.g., a smart TV and/or set-top box), the media guidance applicationmay use other techniques to approximate the user's location. Forexample, the media guidance application may monitor the user's positionwith respect to the set-top box using a camera, such as a securitycamera, a smartphone camera, a depth camera (e.g., a Microsoft Kinect),etc. The media guidance application may capture an image featuring theuser and the first user equipment and utilize a pixel-to-distanceconversion algorithm to determine the user's location with respect tothe first user equipment. In response to determining the user'slocation, the media guidance application may determine the distancebetween the user and a candidate device. For example, the GPScoordinates of the user's smartphone and the Windows tablet may have a1-meter difference. Therefore, if the user is holding the smartphone,the proximity to the user of the Windows tablet is also 1-meter. If thesmartphone was 5-meters away from the user and a camera was able todetect this distance to the user, the media guidance application maydetermine that the proximity to the user of the Windows tablet is 6meters. The media guidance application may repeat this process anddetermine the proximity to the user, for each candidate device in thesubset. The media guidance application may also utilize NFC technologyto determine the respective proximities.

Then, in response to determining that the proximity to the user of arespective candidate device is less than or equal to a thresholdproximity, the media guidance application may identify the respectivecandidate device as the second user equipment. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a threshold proximity from the memoryof the first user equipment. Suppose that the threshold proximity is 6meters. All devices in the subset of candidate devices may have adistance greater than 6 meters other than the Android TV (e.g., which is5 meters away). Accordingly, in response to determining that theproximity of the user to the Android TV is less than the thresholdproximity, the media guidance application may identify the Android TV asthe second user equipment. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may identify as the second user equipment the candidatedevice with the shortest proximity to the user. In this case, thethreshold proximity may be set as the shortest proximity to the user ofthe determined proximities of the subset of candidate devices.

In some embodiments, wherein the content type is associated with visuals(e.g., videos, photos, graphics, etc.), in response to identifying thesubset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type,the media guidance application may determine an orientation of a displayof the respective candidate devices with respect to the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine the map of theenvironment in which the user is located. For example, the mediaguidance application may capture an image of a room that the user islocated in (e.g., using the camera of the user's smartphone, a securitycamera, a thermal energy capture device, etc.), and apply imageprocessing (e.g., edge detection, segmentation, etc.) and machinelearning techniques (e.g., classification) to identify devices in theenvironment and their positions relative to each other. In addition tothe devices, the media guidance application may identify the position ofthe user and the direction in which he/she is oriented. For embeddedmedia assets associated with visuals (e.g., a photograph), the mediaguidance application may determine that the candidate device is requiredto have a display. Thus, the media guidance application may employobject recognition to identify the candidate devices and morespecifically, the orientations of the respective displays. The mediaguidance application may generate a three-dimensional representation ofthe image and define the area between the user's eyes as the originpoint (0, 0, 0). Furthermore, the orientations of the displays may bedefined by mathematical planes with respect to the origin point (e.g.,A₁x+A₂y+A₃z+A₄=0, where x, y, z are unit planes and A₁, A₂, A₃, and A₄are constants).

The media guidance application may then determine whether the display ofthe respective candidate device is within a line of sight of the user,based on the orientation of the display. For example, in thethree-dimensional representation, the media guidance application maygenerate a plane that intersects with the origin point (e.g., betweenthe user's eyes) and is perpendicular to a face plane that contains oris parallel to the user's entire face (e.g., eyes, nose, mouth). As theuser shifts his/her head, the generated plane may be recalculated inorder to remain perpendicular to the user's face plane. This generatedplane is the line of sight of the user, as it represents where the usercan focus his/her eyesight. For each candidate device, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the orientation of thedisplay is within the line of sight of the user by determining whetherthe plane representing the orientation is perpendicular to the planerepresenting the line of sight. As the angle between the planes deviatesfrom 90 degrees (e.g., in any respect of the x-coordinate, y-coordinate,and z-coordinate scheme), the display becomes less ideal for viewingpurposes. When the angle is 0 degrees in any direction, the orientationof the display is parallel to the user's line of sight. Thus, the usermay not be able to view the screen at all, or the screen may appearobscured. If the display is facing away from the user, the mediaguidance application may not determine the plane of the orientation ofthe display for that particular device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the display of the respective candidate device is within theline of sight of the user by determining, based on a position of theuser, a field of view of the user. For example, rather than a plane thatintersects with a point between the eyes and is perpendicular to theface plane, the media guidance application may determine the extent towhich the user's eyes can observe the world in a given moment.Typically, the field of vision is represented by a cone (e.g., x²/A₁²+y²/A₂ ²=z², where x, y, z are unit planes and A₁ and A₂ are constants)or represented by an angle within which the user can see the world(e.g., 150 degrees horizontal range and 150 degrees vertical range). Themedia guidance application may determine a position of the respectivecandidate device with respect to the position of the user. As discussedin the example given previously, the Android TV may be 3 meters awayfrom the user. The media guidance application may determine whether thedisplay of the respective candidate device is within the field of viewof the user, based on both the position of the respective candidatedevice and the orientation of the display of the respective candidatedevice. For example, the media guidance application may determinewhether the plane representing the display is within the field of view(e.g., within the cone and/or angles) and/or is perpendicular to theline of sight.

In response to determining that the display of the respective candidatedevice is within the line of sight of the user, the media guidanceapplication may determine a perceived display size of the respectivecandidate device, wherein the perceived display size is proportional to(1) a physical display size of the respective candidate device and (2)the distance between the user and the respective candidate device. Forexample, due to perception, a small display that is very close to theuser's eyes may appear larger than a large display that is very far fromthe user's eyes. As discussed previously, the subset of candidatedevices may include the Windows tablet, the MacBook, and the Android TV.For simplicity, suppose that the orientations of all displays areperpendicular to the line of sight of the user. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the distance between each candidatedevice and the user's eyes is approximately, 1 meter, 2 meters, and 3meters, respectively, and the physical display sizes, if described asthe diagonal length of a display, are 0.2 meters, 0.33 meters, and 1meter, respectively. Suppose that the physical display size represents asize of the display when the user is standing a threshold distance awayfrom the display. As the user gets closer to the display, the displayappears larger and likewise, as the user moves farther away, the displaygets smaller. Suppose that the threshold distance is 1 meter. Theperceived display size is proportional to the physical display size ofthe respective candidate device and the distance between the user andthe respective candidate device (e.g., the Android TV's display appearsat its physical display size 1-meter long diagonally, when placed 1meter away from the user's eyes and appears one third of the physicaldisplay size—0.33 meters long diagonally, when placed 3 meters away).Accordingly, the perceived display size for the Windows tablet may be0.2 meters, and the perceived display size of the MacBook may be 0.165meters.

It should be noted that the media guidance application may use adifferent algorithm (e.g., non-linear) that is a function of physicaldisplay size, threshold distance, and the distance between the deviceand the user. The algorithm may also account for limitations in theuser's vision. For example, the user may use glasses to see objects thatare far away. The algorithm to calculate perceived display size may thusinclude the focal lengths of the lenses of the glasses as inputs. Themedia guidance application may determine whether the user uses visioncorrection tools (e.g., glasses, contact lenses, etc.) based on theuser's profile. For example, the user may manually indicate his/hervisual limitations.

The media guidance application may then identify the candidate device ofthe subset of candidate devices that has the largest perceived displaysize. As previously mentioned, the subset of candidate devices includesthe Windows tablet with a perceived display size of 0.2 meters, theMacBook with a perceived display size of 0.165 meters, and the AndroidTV with a perceived display size of 0.33 meters. Thus, the candidatedevice with the largest perceived display size is the Android TV. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may also determine thephysical display size of the first user equipment. For example, thephysical display size of the user's smartphone display may be 0.13meters long diagonally. Furthermore, the user may be holding thesmartphone 0.3 meters away from his/her eyes. If the user does notintend to view the embedded in full-screen mode (e.g., the user has notselected full-screen mode or the full-screen mode option does notexist), the media guidance application may determine the display size ofthe embedded media asset. For example, the portion of the displaycontaining the video “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” may only be 0.05meters long diagonally. Accordingly, the perceived display size of theportion containing the embedded media asset may be 0.17 meters. If theperceived display size of the first user equipment is greater than thelargest perceived display size of the subset of candidate devices, themedia guidance application may output the embedded media asset on thedisplay, rather than on a candidate device. Otherwise, in response todetermining that the determined perceived display size of a candidatedevice of the subset of candidate devices is the largest of theperceived display sizes of the subset of candidate devices, the mediaguidance application may identify the candidate device as the seconduser equipment.

In some embodiments, wherein the content type is associated with audio(e.g., music, podcasts, radio, etc.), in response to identifying thesubset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type,the media guidance application may determine a maximum distance thatsound outputted from the respective candidate device can travel. Forexample, the media guidance application may identify a smart speaker anda surround sound system as a subset of candidate devices that arecompatible with audio output. The media guidance application maydetermine the maximum volume (e.g., in decibels) and implement adecibels-to-distance algorithm that may be a function of the volume, thesize of the speaker associated with the candidate device, the type ofenvironment in which the candidate device is located (e.g., retrievedacoustic information), and/or the size of environment, in order todetermine the maximum distance. Alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may use a sound damping calculation and that determines thedecibel levels at a queried distance in proportion to the decibel levelat a known distance. In response to determining that the distancebetween the user and the respective candidate device is less than themaximum distance, the media guidance application may determine a soundscore of the respective candidate device, wherein the sound scorerepresents a quality of sound at a threshold volume. Suppose that themedia guidance application determines that the maximum distance thatsound can travel, for all candidate devices, at a given volume is 5meters. The media guidance application thus may identify only candidatedevices in the subset of candidate devices that are 5 meters away fromthe user. For example, the media guidance application may determine thatthe surround sound system is 3 meters away from the user and the smartspeaker, which also has a maximum distance for sound travel of 5 meters,is 10 meters away; the media guidance application may determine thesound score of the surround sound system only. The quality of sound at athreshold volume (e.g., the maximum volume) may be assessed based on thecandidate device's ability to reproduce an input sound without audibleissues. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve thequality of sound for a certain device from a sound database that liststhe sound score of the device. The sound score may be a quantitative(e.g., 1 out of 10, 2 out of 10, etc.) or qualitative (e.g., “poor,”“below average,” “average,” etc.) measure of sound. In response todetermining that the sound score of the candidate device of the subsetof candidate devices is the highest of the sound scores of the subset ofcandidate devices, the media guidance application may identify thecandidate device as the second user equipment. Suppose that the maximumdistance of sound travel is within the range of the user for both thesmart speaker and the surround sound system. Based on the informationreceived from the sound database, the media guidance application maydetermine that the sound score of the smart speaker is “average” and thesound score of the surround sound system is “excellent.” Due to thehigher score, the media guidance application may identify the surroundsound system as the second user equipment.

In some embodiments, wherein the content type is associated with audioand visuals, and the media guidance application may identify the seconduser equipment by determining that a first candidate device of thesubset of candidate devices has a perceived display size that is greaterthan a threshold size. For example, the threshold size may be thelargest perceived display size of the determined perceived display sizesof the candidate devices. The media guidance application may thendetermine that a second candidate device, different from the firstcandidate device, of the subset of candidate devices has a sound scorethat is greater than a sound threshold. Suppose that the first candidatedevice is the Android TV. The media guidance application may determinethat the first candidate device can also output sound. However, themedia guidance application may identify a second candidate device (e.g.,the surround sound system). The media guidance application may furtherdetermine that the sound score associated with the surround sound systemis better than the sound score associated with the speakers of theAndroid TV. For example, the sound threshold may be the highest soundscore of the determined sound scores of the candidate devices. Thus, themedia guidance application may determine that the surround sound systemis more appropriate for outputting sound. In response to determiningthat (1) the first candidate device has the perceived display size thatis greater than the threshold size and (2) the second candidate devicehas the sound score that is greater than the sound threshold, the mediaguidance application may identify the second user equipment as acombination of the first candidate device for visuals and the secondcandidate device for audio. Thus, the sound associated with the embeddedmedia asset may be outputted by the surround sound system and thevisuals associated with the embedded media asset may be outputted by theAndroid TV.

The media guidance application may then determine a second deviceconfiguration of the second user equipment. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve device details from the second user equipment(e.g., the Android TV). Suppose that the second device configuration is{Hardware: [32-inch display, 1080p capability, audio output],Processing: [2.7 GHz Dual Core Processor, 256 MB VRAM, 600 Mhz CoreClock, 4 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}.

The media guidance application may then determine a second access scorebased on similarities between the recommended device configuration andthe second device configuration. As described previously, the mediaguidance application may determine a difference array between therecommended device configuration and the second device configuration.The difference array is determined by identifying similar entry fields(e.g., the RAM entry from the respective data structures) anddetermining the difference. In the overarching example, the recommendeddevice configuration is {Hardware: [40-inch display, 1080p capability,audio output], Processing: [2.4 GHz Dual Core Processor, 256 MB VRAM,600 Mhz Core Clock, 4 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}. Thus,the difference array is {Hardware: [−8-inch display, 0, 0], Processing:[+0.3 GHz Dual Core Processor, 0, 0, 0], Software: [0]}. The mediaguidance application may then determine the normalized difference arraywith respect to the recommended device configuration. The normalizeddifference array in this example may be {Hardware: [−0.2, 0, 0],Processing: [+0.125, 0, 0, 0], Software: [0]}. Suppose that the weightfor all component entries is 1. The media guidance application may sumthe values of each component entry in the normalized difference array todetermine a second access score of −0.075.

The media guidance application may then determine whether the secondaccess score is greater than the first access score. As calculated, bythe media guidance application, the first access score is −1.825 and thesecond access score is −0.075. Therefore, the second access score isgreater than the first access score.

In response to determining that the second access score is greater thanthe first access score, the media guidance application may cause thesecond user equipment to output a copy of the embedded media asset. Thehigher access score indicates that the second user equipment (e.g., theAndroid TV) is a better device for accessing the video “AvengersInfinity War Trailer” than the first user equipment (e.g., the user'ssmartphone). In some embodiments, the media guidance application maytransmit the video “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” to the second userequipment. For example, the first user equipment may transmit a messageto the second user equipment that includes the name of the embeddedmedia asset, the recommended device configuration, the content type andthe content source to retrieve the embedded media asset from. Supposethat the video on the newsfeed is from an external media source (e.g.,YouTube). The media guidance application may thus transmit the YouTubelink of the video to the second user equipment. In response to receivingand parsing the message, the second user equipment may retrieve thevideo from the content source. In some embodiments, the first userequipment may directly transmit the embedded media asset to the seconduser equipment. For example, the media guidance application may downloadthe video and send the downloaded copy to the second user equipment. Insome embodiments, the second user equipment may mirror the portion ofthe first user equipment that displays the embedded media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may implement a segmentationalgorithm to identify the portion of the newsfeed that displays“Avengers Infinity War Trailer” and transmit the portion to the seconduser equipment.

In response to receiving the embedded media asset and the recommendeddevice configuration, the media guidance application may cause thesecond user equipment to output the copy of the embedded media asset.For example, the media guidance application may determine, based on therecommended device configuration and the content type, that the embeddedmedia asset is a video that should play at high-definition (e.g., 1080p)at 30 fps. Thus, the media guidance application may generate, fordisplay, the video accordingly. In the event that the embedded mediaasset is an audio file, the media guidance application may generate, foraudio output, the audio file. In some embodiments, if the media guidanceapplication determines that the embedded media asset is text, the mediaguidance application may utilize a natural language processing algorithmto convert the text to speech (e.g., a verbal clip) and generate, foraudio output, the verbal clip.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe first access score equals the second access score. In response, themedia guidance application may generate, for display on the first userequipment, a user-selectable option to output the embedded media asseton the second user equipment. This allows the user to select whetherhe/she wishes to access the embedded media asset on the first userequipment or the second user equipment. In response to receiving theselection to output the embedded media asset on the second userequipment, the media guidance application may cause the output of a copyof the embedded media asset on the second user equipment.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may cause the seconduser equipment to output the embedded media asset by first determiningthat the second user equipment is outputting a second media asset. Forexample, the Android TV may be generating, for display, a broadcasttelevision show. In response to determining that the second userequipment is outputting the second media asset, the media guidanceapplication may determine, based on a user profile of the user, animportance level of the embedded media asset and an importance level ofthe second media asset. Suppose that the second media asset is acommercial that starts and is not relevant to the user (e.g., thecommercial is about a car). The media guidance application maydetermine, from the user profile, that the user is not interested in thecar commercial and assign an importance level accordingly (e.g., arating out of 10). For example, the importance level of the commercialmay be 3 out of 10. Furthermore, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user has viewed several action movies, based onhis/her viewing history. Thus, the media guidance application maydetermine the importance level of “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” to be9 out of 10 (e.g., based on the length of time the user has spentwatching similar content, the frequency at which the user watchessimilar content, the amount of similar content the user has viewed,etc.). In response to determining that the importance level of the firstembedded media asset is greater than the importance level of the secondmedia asset, the media guidance application may cause the second userequipment to output the first embedded media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may completely replace, for display, thesecond media asset with the embedded media asset, and begin recordingthe second media asset. Alternatively, the media guidance applicationmay place a PIP of the embedded media asset on top of the second mediaasset. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generatea queue and generate, for display, the copy of the embedded media assetafter the second media asset has finished playback.

In some embodiments, before causing the output of the embedded mediaasset on the second user equipment, the media guidance application maydetermine a parental control level for the embedded media asset (e.g.,by accessing a parental controls database). For example, “AvengersInfinity War Trailer” may have a parental control level of PG-13. Themedia guidance application may then determine whether there are anyparental locks associated with the second user equipment. For example,the Android TV may have a parental control that prevents content that isgreater than PG from playback. In response to determining that theparental control level (e.g., PG-13) of the embedded media asset isgreater than the parental lock level (e.g., PG), the media guidanceapplication may prevent the output of the embedded media asset on thesecond user equipment.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user has navigated away from the embedded media asset. For example,the media guidance application may determine that the user has enteredan input to scroll to a different portion of the digital page.Alternatively, the user may manually stop the embedded media asset fromplayback (e.g., press the pause button). In response, the media guidanceapplication may cease output of the copy of the embedded media asset onthe second user equipment.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/oraspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in thisdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a scenario for accessing mediaof a visual content type by outputting the media on a nearby device thatis better-suited for access, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of a scenario for accessing mediaof an audio-based content type by outputting the media on a nearbydevice that is better suited for access, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of a digital page and the layout ofa plurality of embedded media assets, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 4 and 5 show illustrative examples of display screens generated bya media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for enhancing userexperience in accessing media of a certain content type by outputtingthe media on a nearby device that is better-suited for access, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining, based on focus regions, whether the user has navigated tothe position of the embedded media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining, based on display sizes of embedded media assets, whetherthe user has navigated to the position of the embedded media asset, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining, based on the user's scrolling input, whether the user hasnavigated to the position of the embedded media asset, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining, based on the user's scroll-back input, whether the user hasnavigated to the position of the embedded media asset, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process foridentifying, based on the proximities of a plurality of candidatedevices, the second user equipment, in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for identifying, basedon the user's line of sight, the second user equipment, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process foridentifying, based on the user's field of view, the second userequipment, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process foridentifying, based on the sound scores of the plurality of candidatedevices, the second user equipment, in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure; and

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process foridentifying a combination of candidate devices as the second userequipment, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are thus described for enhancing user experience inaccessing media of a certain content type by outputting the media on anearby device that is better suited for access. For example, the systemsand methods may determine that a user is accessing, on his/hersmartphone, a digital page (e.g., a website, a newsfeed, etc.) thatfeatures embedded content (e.g., photos, movies, music, etc.). Supposethat a user is scrolling through his/her social media newsfeed. Inresponse to determining that the user has navigated to an embeddedcontent, such as a video clip, the systems and methods may determine adevice in the vicinity of the user that is better suited than the user'ssmartphone for playback of the video clip. For example, the smartphonemay be unable to play high-definition video, may have a small display,and/or may have other connectivity issues that are not found in a smarttelevision near the user. The smart television may have a larger screen,better sound output, and a better display resolution. As a result, thesystems and methods described may generate, for display, the video clipon the smart television.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a scenario 100 for accessingmedia of a visual content type by outputting the media on a nearbydevice that is better suited for access, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. In scenario 100, a media guidanceapplication may determine that a user is accessing, on first userequipment 102, digital page 103 comprising a plurality of embedded mediaassets. Examples of first user equipment 102 include, but are notlimited to, set-top boxes, smart displays, smartphones, laptops, andvideo game consoles. In this specific example, first user equipment 102is a smartphone. Digital page 103 may be a user interface (UI) such as awebsite, a launcher (e.g., an Android interface with widgets), anapplication's UI, etc. The media assets of digital page 103 may include,but are not limited to, videos, photos, text, augmented realitysimulators and video games. These media assets are embedded in digitalpage 103. This indicates that the user may directly access the mediaasset on digital page 103, without having to be redirected to adifferent digital page.

Suppose that the user is accessing a social media newsfeed (e.g., theFacebook newsfeed) on his/her smartphone. The media guidance applicationmay determine, using an activity monitor or a memory allocation system,that the user is accessing the Facebook application on his/hersmartphone. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayretrieve information from a pre-generated database that contains a listof applications that feature digital pages with pluralities of embeddedmedia assets. For example, the database may include Facebook. Therefore,the media guidance application may determine that the user is accessinga digital page on the Facebook application. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may monitor the user's screen and performimage processing (e.g., edge detection, segmentation, etc.) to identifysections of the screen. Suppose that the sections of the newsfeed areclassified, by the media guidance application, as “photo album” and“video.” In response to identifying multiple sections, the mediaguidance application may determine that the user is accessing a digitalpage with a plurality of media assets.

The media guidance application may determine that the user hasnavigated, on digital page 103, to a position of embedded media asset104 of the plurality of embedded media assets. In an overarchingexample, consider that the Facebook application being accessed on theuser's smartphone features a vertical newsfeed. Therefore, the user mayonly scroll up or down to access the content on digital page 103.Furthermore, the newsfeed may be organized analogous to a list (e.g.,one media asset after another). The order of the media assets may be:video, audio file, photo, and text.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user has navigated to the position of embedded media asset 104 byfirst identifying a display configuration of first user equipment 102.For example, the display configuration may include the size of thedisplay, the shape, the resolution, the number of displays, etc. Themedia guidance application may then determine focus regions of a displayof first user equipment 102, based on the display configuration. Forexample, suppose that first user equipment 102 has a camera input thatcan monitor the user's eye motion. The media guidance application mayidentify, by tracking the user's eye motion, a region of the displaythat the user is focusing on. In another example, the displayconfiguration may be a data structure that indicates areas of the screenthat users generally focus on (e.g., via collaborative filtering). Afocus region may be defined by the media guidance application as a shapeof a certain size that is located on the display (e.g., a circle with a3-cm radius and an origin point at the center of the display).

The media guidance application may then determine a layout of theplurality of embedded media assets on the display. For example, thelayout may represent the position of each embedded media asset of theplurality of embedded media assets on digital page 103. Suppose thatdigital page 103 is 5000 pixels in length and 1080 pixels in width. Thelayout may be a data structure that indicates, for each embedded mediaasset, the length and width of the section of digital page 103containing embedded media asset 104 and the center point of the section.For example, one of the embedded media assets may be a video titled“Avengers Infinity War Trailer.” The video may be contained in arectangular section of digital page 103 that is 640 pixels in length and1080 pixels in width. The center of the rectangular section may be 500pixels away from the top edge of digital page 103 and 540 pixels fromthe right edge of digital page 103. Thus, the first entry of thelayout's data structure may be the array {embedded media asset 1, 640p,1080p, (500, 540)}. The media guidance application may retrieve metadataassociated with digital page 103 to identify the positions of eachembedded media asset and populate the layout's data structure. The mediaguidance application may also use image processing (e.g., edgedetection, segmentation, etc.) to automatically approximate thepositions of the embedded media assets.

The media guidance application may determine that embedded media asset104 of the plurality of embedded media assets is in a first portion ofthe layout. For example, the media guidance application may identify therectangular section highlighted above (i.e., length: 640p, width: 1080p,center: (500, 540)) as the first portion of the layout. The mediaguidance application may then determine that the first portion of thelayout corresponds to a focus region of first user equipment 102.Suppose that the focus region is in the center of the user's smartphonedisplay. The user may scroll down digital page 103 such that the firstportion containing embedded media asset 104 “Avengers Infinity WarTrailer” falls in the center of the user's smartphone display. Inanother example, the media guidance application may monitor the user'seye motion and determine a focus region accordingly. In this case, themedia guidance application may determine a first vector originating fromthe first eye of the user and a second vector originating from thesecond eye of the user. The respective vectors may represent a directionin which the eye is looking. The media guidance application may thendetermine an intersection of the vectors and determine whether theintersection occurs at the display of first user equipment 102. Inresponse to determining that the intersection occurs at the display, themedia guidance application may determine the intersection point to be afocus region. In this example, if the first portion containing embeddedmedia asset 104 exists at the focus region, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user is focused on the embedded mediaasset. Thus, in response to determining that the first portioncorresponds to the focus region, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user has navigated, on digital page 103, to theposition of embedded media asset 104.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user has navigated to the position of embedded media asset 104 byfirst determining that the user is scrolling in a first directionthrough the plurality of embedded media assets on digital page 103.Suppose that the user is providing navigation inputs on digital page 103using physical contact on a touchscreen display. The user may pushupwards along the display screen to scroll down the display page. Themedia guidance application may determine the direction in which the useris pushing and the direction in which digital page 103 is moving. Thisdirection may be known as the first direction. The media guidanceapplication may detect that the user scrolled past embedded media asset104. For example, the media guidance application may determine a focusregion on the display of first user equipment 102. Suppose that thefocus area is represented by a circle at the center of the display witha radius of 3 centimeters. As the user scrolls along the display page,various embedded media assets may enter and exit the focus region. Themedia guidance application may determine that the user has scrolled pastan embedded media asset if it enters and exits the focus region duringone continuous input.

Subsequent to detecting that the user scrolled past embedded media asset104, the media guidance application may determine that the user isscrolling in a second direction, wherein the second direction is towardsembedded media asset 104. For example, the user may realize that he/shescrolled past content that he/she actually wants to access. The user mayprovide another input by pushing downwards along the display screen toreturn back to the content. The media guidance application may thusdetect that the scrolling is happening in an opposite direction. Themedia guidance application may determine that the user has stoppedscrolling at the position of embedded media asset 104. For example,embedded media asset 104 may enter the focus region of the display, ormay come into view without being obscured on the display. In response todetermining that the user stopped scrolling at the position of embeddedmedia asset 104, the media guidance application may determine that theuser has navigated, on digital page 103, to the position of embeddedmedia asset 104.

In response to determining that the user has navigated, on digital page103, to the position of embedded media asset 104, the media guidanceapplication may identify a content type (e.g., video, audio, photo,etc.) of embedded media asset 104. For example, the user may beaccessing a video titled “Avengers Infinity War Trailer.” The mediaguidance application may retrieve metadata associated with embeddedmedia asset 104 and/or digital page 103. The metadata associated withdigital page 103 (e.g., the newsfeed) may indicate the plugins andprocesses required to generate, for display, an embedded media asset.For example, the “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” may be embedded in abuilt-in video player that features modules/plugins for video playbackon the newsfeed. The metadata associated with “Avengers Infinity WarTrailer” may indicate a video format (e.g., mp4, avi, etc.). Based onthe metadata of the “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” and/or the newsfeed,the media guidance application may determine that the content type ofembedded media asset 104 “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” is “video.”

In some embodiments, the content type may be represented by a datastructure (e.g., an array, a linked list, etc.) with additional detailsabout the media content. For example, the metadata of “Avengers InfinityWar Trailer” may contain details about how the video is encoded (e.g.,H.264), the resolution range (e.g., from 480p to 1080p), the duration ofthe video, the frames per second, and the physical size of the video(e.g., 230 MB). The media guidance application may thus extract thesedetails from the metadata and place them in the entries of the datastructure.

The media guidance application may retrieve, from a data structure ofaccess setting recommendations, a recommended device configuration foraccessing the content type. The recommended device configuration mayalso be represented as a data structure that indicates recommendedhardware components (e.g., display, audio output, virtual realityheadset, etc.), processing recommendations (e.g., processor, memory,graphics, etc.), and software components (e.g., media player). Supposethat the content type is represented by an array {Video, H.264, 480p,1080p, 30 fps, 64 s, 230 MB}. The recommended device configuration mayconsist of predetermined optimized device settings for accessing thecontent type. The media guidance application may, for example, determinethe recommended device configuration to be {Hardware: [40-inch display,1080p capability, audio output], Processing: [2.4 GHz Dual CoreProcessor, 256 MB VRAM, 600 Mhz Core Clock, 4 GB RAM], Software: [H.264media player]}.

More specifically, the data structure of access setting recommendationsmay be divided as a binary decision tree. The topmost node may ask, “isthe content a video?” and if the answer is “yes,” the next node may ask“is the video encoded in H.264?”. This binary approach may then ask, “isthe minimum resolution 480p?”, “is the maximum resolution 1080p?”, “isthe duration greater than 60 s?”, “is the size greater than 200 MB?”,etc. After traversing through the binary decision tree, the mediaguidance application may arrive at the recommended device configuration{Hardware: [40-inch display, 1080p capability, audio output],Processing: [2.4 GHz Dual Core Processor, 256 MB VRAM, 600 Mhz CoreClock, 4 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}, for accessing thecontent type represented as {Video, H.264, 480p, 1080p, 30 fps, 64 s,230 MB}. It should be noted that the data structure of access settingrecommendations is not limited to a binary decision tree. For example,the data structure may be a regular decision tree, a lookup table, alinked list, etc. In the case of a lookup table, for example, the mediaguidance application may search for recommended device configurationsfor “Video,” recommended device configurations for “H.264,” recommendeddevice configurations for “480p minimum,” etc. The media guidanceapplication may then take all of the individual recommended deviceconfigurations and determine one recommended device configuration whereeach of the devices overlap. In this example, suppose that therecommended device configurations for “Video” are {Hardware: [11-inchdisplay, 240p capability, audio output], Processing: [1.2 GHz Dual CoreProcessor, 128 MB VRAM, 200 Mhz Core Clock, 0.5 GB RAM], Software:[media player]} and the recommended device configurations for “H.264”are {Hardware: [11-inch display, 240p capability, audio output],Processing: [1.5 GHz Dual Core Processor, 128 MB VRAM, 200 Mhz CoreClock, 1 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}, the media guidanceapplication may determine the overlap to be {Hardware: [11-inch display,240p capability, audio output], Processing: [1.5 GHz Dual CoreProcessor, 128 MB VRAM, 200 Mhz Core Clock, 1 GB RAM], Software: [H.264media player]}.

The media guidance application may then determine a first deviceconfiguration of first user equipment 102. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the device analytics of the user'ssmartphone from the memory of the smartphone or the Internet. Supposethat the first device configuration is {Hardware: [5-inch display, 720pcapability, audio output], Processing: [1.9 GHz Dual Core Processor, 256MB VRAM, 500 Mhz Core Clock, 3 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}.

The media guidance application may determine a first access score basedon similarities between the recommended device configuration and thefirst device configuration. For example, the media guidance applicationmay compare the data structure of the recommended device configurationand the data structure of the first device configuration. It should benoted that both data structures may be of the same type (e.g., arrays,linked lists, stacks, etc.). The media guidance application may takevarious approaches to determine the first access score. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may run a modified distanceformula between the two data structures. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the difference array between therespective data structures is {Hardware: [−35-inch display, −360pcapability, 0], Processing: [−0.5 GHz Dual Core Processor, 0, −100 MhzCore Clock, −1 GB RAM], Software: [0]}. In this example, a “0” indicatesthat there is no difference, a negative number indicates that the actualdevice configuration entry is below the recommended device configurationentry, and a positive number indicates that the device configurationentry exceeds the recommended device configuration entry. The mediaguidance application may then normalize the difference array withrespect to the recommended device configuration. For example, the valueof −35-inch display may get divided by 40-inch display to yield −0.875.Applying this method to the other entries of the difference array, themedia guidance application may determine that the normalized differencearray is {Hardware: [−0.875, −0.33, 0], Processing: [−0.21, 0, −0.16,−0.25], Software: [0]}. The media guidance application may then sum thevalues of the normalized difference array to determine the first accessscore. For example, the first access score may be −1.825 based on thenormalized difference array above. It should be noted that a firstaccess score of “0” indicates that the first device configurationmatches the recommended device configuration exactly. A negative accessscore represents that the first device configuration is inferior to therecommended device configuration and a positive access score representsthat the first device configuration is superior to the recommendeddevice configuration.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may applypredetermined weights to each of the entries of the normalizeddifference array. The weights may represent an importance of the entry(e.g., from 0 to 1, with larger numbers representing a greater weight).For example, the weight of the RAM entry may be 0.5 and the weight ofthe processor entry may be 0.75. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may also do an initial scan through the normalizeddifference array for a value of “−1,” which may indicate that therecommended component is missing entirely. For example, if first userequipment 102 has no audio output component, the first deviceconfiguration value for hardware audio may be “0,” the difference arraymay thus indicate “-audio output,” and the normalized difference arraymay be “−1.” In response to detecting the absence of a component, themedia guidance application may determine that the user equipment is notcompatible with the content type and may automatically assign it withthe lowest access score possible.

The media guidance application may then transmit a discovery messagefrom first user equipment 102. The payload of the discovery message mayinclude information of first user equipment 102 and/or embedded mediaasset 104. It should be noted that the discovery message may be sent bya third user equipment (e.g., a router) that serves as a bridge for thecommunication between first user equipment 102 (e.g., the user'ssmartphone) and second user equipment. In response to transmitting thediscovery message, the media guidance application may identify seconduser equipment 112. For example, second user equipment 112 (e.g., asmart TV) may receive the discovery message. In response, second userequipment 112 may send an acknowledgment message to first user equipment102. The acknowledgment message may include information about seconduser equipment 112 such as a device identifier (e.g., name), a devicetype (e.g., multimedia system, phone, display, etc.), authorized users,etc., and timestamps signifying when the discovery message was receivedand when the acknowledgment was transmitted.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify seconduser equipment 112 by first receiving acknowledgment messages from aplurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message. Forexample, the environment in which the user is located may have severaluser equipment devices in the user's vicinity. Accordingly, a pluralityof candidate devices may respond to the discovery message. Theacknowledgment messages may indicate the types of content each of theplurality of candidate devices is compatible with. Suppose that theplurality of candidate devices includes portable tablet 108, laptop 110,television 112, and speaker 116. The media guidance application maydetermine, from each acknowledgment message, the type of device (e.g., atablet, a laptop, a smart TV and a smart speaker, respectively) and thetype of compatible content of the candidate device. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may determine, from the type of device,the type of compatible content associated with the candidate device. Forexample, a smart TV may be compatible with videos, visual games andaudio, whereas a smart speaker may only be compatible with audio-basedcontent. The media guidance application may thus identify, from theplurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that arecompatible with the content type of embedded media asset 104. Aspreviously discussed, the user may be accessing the video “AvengersInfinity War Trailer.” Because the smart speaker may be incompatiblewith this content type, the subset of candidate devices may thereforeinclude portable tablet 108, laptop 110, and television 112.

The media guidance application may then, for each candidate device ofthe subset of candidate devices, determine a proximity to the user. Theuser's location may be determined by the media guidance application,based on the location of the first equipment device and the type ofdevice. Based on the type of device (e.g., a laptop, a phone, a speaker,etc.) the media guidance application may be able to determine whetherthe device is mobile or stationary. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that a mobile device such as a smartphone maybe held by the user. Therefore, using GPS coordinates of the smartphone,the media guidance application may also be able to approximate thelocation of the user. If first user equipment 102 is a stationary device(e.g., a smart TV and/or set-top box), the media guidance applicationmay use other techniques to approximate the user's location. Forexample, the media guidance application may monitor the user's positionwith respect to the set-top box using a camera, such as a securitycamera, a smartphone camera, a depth camera (e.g., a Microsoft Kinect),etc. The media guidance application may capture an image featuring theuser and first user equipment 102 and utilize a pixel-to-distanceconversion algorithm to determine the user's location with respect tofirst user equipment 102. In response to determining the user'slocation, the media guidance application may determine the distancebetween the user and a candidate device. For example, the GPScoordinates of the user's smartphone and portable tablet 108 may have a1-meter difference. Therefore, if the user is holding the smartphone,the proximity to the user of portable tablet 108 is also 1-meter. If thesmartphone was 5-meters away from the user and a camera was able todetect this distance to the user, the media guidance application maydetermine that the proximity to the user of portable tablet 108 is 6meters. The media guidance application may repeat this process anddetermine the proximity to the user, for each candidate device in thesubset. The media guidance application may also utilize NFC technologyto determine the respective proximities.

Then, in response to determining that the proximity to the user of arespective candidate device is less than or equal to a thresholdproximity, the media guidance application may identify the respectivecandidate device as the second user equipment. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a threshold proximity from the memoryof first user equipment 102. Suppose that the threshold proximity is 6meters. All devices in the subset of candidate devices may have adistance great than 6 meters other than television 112 (e.g., which is 5meters away). Accordingly, in response to determining that the proximityof the user to television 112 is less than the threshold proximity, themedia guidance application may identify television 112 as the seconduser equipment. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayidentify, as the second user equipment, the candidate device with theshortest proximity to the user. In this case, the threshold proximitymay be set as the shortest proximity to the user of the determinedproximities of the subset of candidate devices.

In some embodiments, wherein the content type is associated with visuals(e.g., videos, photos, graphics, etc.), in response to identifying thesubset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type,the media guidance application may determine an orientation of a displayof the respective candidate device with respect to the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine the map of theenvironment in which the user is located. For example, the mediaguidance application may capture an image of a room that the user islocated in (e.g., using the camera of the user's smartphone, a securitycamera, a thermal energy capture device, etc.), and apply imageprocessing (e.g., edge detection, segmentation, etc.) and machinelearning techniques (e.g., classification) to identify devices in theenvironment and their positions relative to each other. In addition tothe devices, the media guidance application may identify the position ofthe user and the direction in which he/she is oriented. For embeddedmedia assets associated with visuals (e.g., a photograph), the mediaguidance application may determine that the candidate device is requiredto have a display. Thus, the media guidance application may employobject recognition to identify the candidate devices and morespecifically, the orientations of the respective displays. The mediaguidance application may generate a three-dimensional representation ofthe image and define the area between the user's eyes as the originpoint (0, 0, 0). Furthermore, the orientations of the displays may bedefined by mathematical planes with respect to the origin point (e.g.,A₁x+A₂y+A₃z+A₄=0, where x, y, z are unit planes and A₁, A₂, A₃, and A₄are constants).

The media guidance application may then determine whether the display ofthe respective candidate device is within a line of sight of the user,based on the orientation of the display. For example, in thethree-dimensional representation, the media guidance application maygenerate a plane that intersects with the origin point (e.g., betweenthe user's eyes) and is perpendicular to a face plane that contains oris parallel to the user's entire face (e.g., eyes, nose, mouth). As theuser shifts his/her head, the generated plane may be recalculated inorder to remain perpendicular to the user's face plane. This generatedplane is the line of sight of the user, as it represents where the usercan focus his/her eyesight. For each candidate device, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the orientation of thedisplay is within the line of sight of the user by determining whetherthe plane representing the orientation is perpendicular to the planerepresenting the line of sight. As the angle between the planes deviatesfrom 90 degrees (e.g., in any respect of the x-coordinate, y-coordinate,and z-coordinate scheme), the display becomes less ideal for viewingpurposes. When the angle is 0 degrees in any direction, the orientationof the display is parallel to the user's line of sight. Thus, the usermay not be able to view the screen at all, or the screen may appearobscured. If the display is facing away from the user, the mediaguidance application may not determine the plane of the orientation ofthe display for that particular device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the display of the respective candidate device is within theline of sight of the user by determining, based on a position of theuser, a field of view of the user. For example, rather than a plane thatintersects with a point between the eyes and is perpendicular to theface plane, the media guidance application may determine the extent towhich the user's eyes can observe the world in a given moment.Typically, the field of vision is represented by a cone (e.g., x²/A₁²+y²/A₂ ²=z², where x, y, z are unit planes and A₁ and A₂ are constants)or represented by an angle within which the user can see the world(e.g., 150 degrees horizontal range and 150 degrees vertical range). Themedia guidance application may determine a position of the respectivecandidate device with respect to the position of the user. As discussedin the example given previously, television 112 may be 3 meters awayfrom the user. The media guidance application may determine whether thedisplay of the respective candidate device is within the field of viewof the user, based on both the position of the respective candidatedevice and the orientation of the display of the respective candidatedevice. For example, the media guidance application may determinewhether the plane representing the display is within the field of view(e.g., within the cone and/or angles) and/or is perpendicular to theline of sight.

In response to determining that the display of the respective candidatedevice is within the line of sight of the user, the media guidanceapplication may determine a perceived display size of the respectivecandidate device, wherein the perceived display size is proportional to(1) a physical display size of the respective candidate device and (2)the distance between the user and the respective candidate device. Forexample, due to perception, a small display that is very close to theuser's eyes may appear larger than a large display that is very far fromthe user's eyes. As discussed previously, the subset of candidatedevices may include portable tablet 108, laptop 110, and television 112.For simplicity, suppose that the orientations of all displays areperpendicular to the line of sight of the user. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the distance between each candidatedevice and the user's eyes is approximately, 1-meter, 2 meters, and 3meters, respectively, and the physical display sizes, if described asthe diagonal length of a display, are 0.2 meters, 0.33 meters, and 1meter, respectively. Suppose that the physical display size represents asize of the display when the user is standing a threshold distance awayfrom the display. As the user gets closer to the display, the displayappears larger and likewise, as the user moves further away, the displayappears smaller. Suppose that the threshold distance is 1-meter. Theperceived display size is proportional to the physical display size ofthe respective candidate device and the distance between the user andthe respective candidate device (e.g., television 112's display appearsat its physical display size—1-meter long diagonally, when placed1-meter away from the user's eyes and appears one third of the physicaldisplay size—0.33 meters long diagonally, when placed 3 meters away).Accordingly, the perceived display size for portable tablet 108 may be0.2 meters, and the perceived display size of laptop 110 may be 0.165meters.

It should be noted that the media guidance application may use adifferent algorithm (e.g., non-linear) that is a function of physicaldisplay size, threshold distance, and the distance between the deviceand the user. The algorithm may also account for limitations in theuser's vision. For example, the user may use glasses to see objects thatare far away. The algorithm to calculate perceived display size may thusinclude the focal lengths of the lenses of the glasses as inputs. Themedia guidance application may determine whether the user uses visioncorrection tools (e.g., glasses, contact lenses, etc.) based on theuser's profile. For example, the user may manually indicate his/hervisual limitations.

The media guidance application may then identify the candidate device ofthe subset of candidate devices that has the largest perceived displaysize. As previously mentioned, the subset of candidate devices includesportable tablet 108 with a perceived display size of 0.2 meters, laptop110 with a perceived display size of 0.165 meters, and television 112with a perceived display size of 0.33 meters. Thus, the candidate devicewith the largest perceived display size is television 112. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may also determine thephysical display size of first user equipment 102. For example, thephysical display size of the user's smartphone display may be 0.13meters long diagonally. Furthermore, the user may be holding thesmartphone 0.3 meters away from his/her eyes. If the user does notintend to view the embedded in full-screen mode (e.g., the user has notselected full-screen mode or the full-screen mode option does notexist), the media guidance application may determine the display size ofembedded media asset 104. For example, the portion of the displaycontaining the video “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” may only be 0.05meters long diagonally. Accordingly, the perceived display size of theportion containing embedded media asset 104 may be 0.17 meters. If theperceived display size of first user equipment 102 is greater than thelargest perceived display size of the subset of candidate devices, themedia guidance application may output embedded media asset 104 on thedisplay, rather than on a candidate device. Otherwise, in response todetermining that the determined perceived display size of a candidatedevice of the subset of candidate devices is the largest of perceiveddisplay sizes of the subset of candidate devices, the media guidanceapplication may identify the candidate device as the second userequipment.

The media guidance application may then determine a second deviceconfiguration of second user equipment 112. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve device details from second user equipment 112(e.g., television 112). Suppose that the second device configuration is{Hardware: [32-inch display, 1080p capability, audio output],Processing: [2.7 GHz Dual Core Processor, 256 MB VRAM, 600 Mhz CoreClock, 4 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}.

The media guidance application may then determine a second access scorebased on similarities between the recommended device configuration andthe second device configuration. As described previously, the mediaguidance application may determine a difference array between therecommended device configuration and the second device configuration.The difference array is determined by identifying similar entry fields(e.g., the RAM entry from the respective data structures) anddetermining the difference. In the overarching example, the recommendeddevice configuration is {Hardware: [40-inch display, 1080p capability,audio output], Processing: [2.4 GHz Dual Core Processor, 256 MB VRAM,600 Mhz Core Clock, 4 GB RAM], Software: [H.264 media player]}. Thus,the difference array is {Hardware: [−8-inch display, 0, 0], Processing:[+0.3 GHz Dual Core Processor, 0, 0, 0], Software: [0]}. The mediaguidance application may then determine the normalized difference arraywith respect to the recommended device configuration. The normalizeddifference array in this example may be {Hardware: [−0.2, 0, 0],Processing: [+0.125, 0, 0, 0], Software: [0]}. Suppose that the weightsfor all component entries is 1. The media guidance application may sumthe values of each component entry in the normalized difference array todetermine a second access score of −0.075.

The media guidance application may then determine whether the secondaccess score is greater than the first access score. As calculated, bythe media guidance application, the first access score is −1.825 and thesecond access score is −0.075. Therefore, the second access score isgreater than the first access score.

In response to determining that the second access score is greater thanthe first access score, the media guidance application may cause seconduser equipment 112 to output a copy of embedded media asset 104 (e.g.,media asset 114). The higher access score indicates that second userequipment 112 (e.g., television 112) is a better device for accessingthe video “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” than first user equipment 102(e.g., the user's smartphone). In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may transmit the video “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” tosecond user equipment 112. For example, first user equipment 102 maytransmit a message to second user equipment 112 that includes the nameof embedded media asset 104, the recommended device configuration, thecontent type and the content source to retrieve embedded media asset 104from. Suppose that the video on the newsfeed is from an external mediasource (e.g., YouTube). The media guidance application may thus transmitthe YouTube link of the video to second user equipment 112. In responseto receiving and parsing the message, second user equipment 112 mayretrieve the video from the content source. In some embodiments, firstuser equipment 102 may directly transmit embedded media asset 104 tosecond user equipment 112. For example, the media guidance applicationmay download the video and send the downloaded copy (e.g., media asset114) to second user equipment 112. In some embodiments, second userequipment 112 may mirror the portion of first user equipment 102 thatdisplays embedded media asset 104. For example, the media guidanceapplication may implement a segmentation algorithm to identify theportion of the newsfeed that displays “Avengers Infinity War Trailer”and transmit the portion to second user equipment 112.

In response to receiving embedded media asset 104 and the recommendeddevice configuration, the media guidance application may cause seconduser equipment 112 to output the copy of embedded media asset 104 (e.g.,media asset 114). For example, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on the recommended device configuration and the contenttype, that embedded media asset 104 is a video that should play athigh-definition (e.g., 1080p) at 30 fps. Thus, the media guidanceapplication may generate, for display, the video accordingly. In theevent that embedded media asset 104 is an audio file, the media guidanceapplication may generate, for audio output, the audio file. In someembodiments, if the media guidance application determines that embeddedmedia asset 104 is text, the media guidance application may utilize anatural language processing algorithm to convert the text to speech(e.g., a verbal clip) and generate, for audio output, the verbal clip.

In some embodiments, wherein the content type is associated with audioand visuals, and the media guidance application may identify the seconduser equipment by determining that a first candidate device of thesubset of candidate devices has a perceived display size that is greaterthan a threshold size. For example, the threshold size may be thelargest perceived display size of the determined perceived display sizesof the candidate devices. The media guidance application may thendetermine that a second candidate device, different from the firstcandidate device, of the subset of candidate devices has a sound scorethat is greater than a sound threshold. Suppose that the first candidatedevice is television 112. The media guidance application may determinethat the first candidate device can also output sound. However, themedia guidance application may identify a second candidate device (e.g.,speaker 116). The media guidance application may further determine thatthe sound score associated with speaker 116 is better than the soundscore associated with the speakers of television 112. For example, thesound threshold may be the highest sound score of the determined soundscores of the candidate devices. Thus, the media guidance applicationmay determine that speaker 116 is more appropriate for outputting sound.In response to determining that (1) the first candidate device has theperceived display size that is greater than the threshold size and (2)the second candidate device has the sound score that is greater than thesound threshold, the media guidance application may identify the seconduser equipment as a combination of the first candidate device forvisuals and the second candidate device for audio. Thus, the soundassociated with embedded media asset 104 may be outputted by speaker 116and the visuals associated with embedded media asset 104 may beoutputted by television 112.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe first access score equals the second access score. In response, themedia guidance application may generate, for display on first userequipment 102, a user-selectable option to output embedded media asset104 on second user equipment 112. This allows the user to select whetherhe/she wishes to access embedded media asset 104 on first user equipment102 or second user equipment 112. In response to receiving the selectionto output embedded media asset 104 on second user equipment 112, themedia guidance application may cause the output of a copy of embeddedmedia asset on second user equipment 112 (e.g., media asset 114).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may cause seconduser equipment 112 to output embedded media asset 104 by firstdetermining that second user equipment 112 is outputting a second mediaasset. For example, television 112 may be generating, for display, abroadcast television show. In response to determining that second userequipment 112 is outputting the second media asset, the media guidanceapplication may determine, based on a user profile of the user, animportance level of embedded media asset 104 and an importance level ofthe second media asset. Suppose that the second media asset is acommercial that starts and is not relevant to the user (e.g., thecommercial is about a car). The media guidance application maydetermine, from the user profile, that the user is not interested in thecar commercial and assign an importance level accordingly (e.g., arating out of 10). For example, the importance level of the commercialmay be 3 out of 10. Furthermore, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user has viewed several action movies, based onhis/her viewing history. Thus, the media guidance application maydetermine the importance level of “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” to be9 out of 10 (e.g., based on the length of time the user has spentwatching similar content, the frequency at which the user watchessimilar content, the amount of similar content the user has viewed,etc.). In response to determining that the importance level of the firstembedded media asset is greater than the importance level of the secondmedia asset, the media guidance application may cause second userequipment 112 to output the first embedded media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may completely replace, for display, thesecond media asset with embedded media asset 104, and begin recordingthe second media asset. Alternatively, the media guidance applicationmay place a PIP of embedded media asset 104 on top of the second mediaasset. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generatea queue and generate, for display, the copy of embedded media asset 104(e.g., media asset 114) after the second media asset has finishedplayback.

In some embodiments, before causing the output of embedded media asset104 on second user equipment 112, the media guidance application maydetermine a parental control level for embedded media asset 104 (e.g.,by accessing a parental controls database). For example, “AvengersInfinity War Trailer” may have a parental control level of PG-13. Themedia guidance application may then determine whether there are anyparental locks associated with second user equipment 112. For example,television 112 may have a parental control that prevents content that isgreater than PG from playback. In response to determining that theparental control level (e.g., PG-13) of embedded media asset 104 isgreater than the parental lock level (e.g., PG), the media guidanceapplication may prevent the output of embedded media asset 104 on seconduser equipment 112.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user has navigated away from embedded media asset 104. For example,the media guidance application may determine that the user has enteredan input to scroll to a different portion of digital page 103.Alternatively, the user may manually stop embedded media asset 104 fromplayback (e.g., press the pause button). In response, the media guidanceapplication may cease output of the copy of embedded media asset 104 onsecond user equipment 112 (e.g., media asset 114).

Adding onto the details described in scenario 100, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user has navigated to the position ofembedded media asset 106 by first determining a layout of the pluralityof embedded media assets with respect to the display. As previouslydiscussed, the layout may be a data structure with information of thepositions and display sizes of the embedded media assets of theplurality of media assets. The media guidance application may thendetermine whether embedded media asset 106 is obscured on the display,based on the layout. Suppose that the user's smartphone display candisplay 1080 pixels in width and 1920 pixels in length. As describedpreviously, digital page 103 may be 5000 pixels in length. Thus, thedisplay may not be able to display the entire digital page at once. Theuser therefore may only be able to see a limited number of embeddedmedia assets at any given time and some embedded media assets may onlybe partially visible (e.g., the user may need to scroll up to view theentire portion containing embedded media asset 104). The media guidanceapplication may determine an embedded media asset to be obscured ifembedded media asset 106 is only partially visible (e.g., cut off due todisplay size limitations), too small to adequately view (e.g., a smallprofile picture on a social feed post), blurred, etc.

In response to determining that embedded media asset 106 is obscured,the media guidance application may determine that embedded media asset104 is not obscured, and may determine a display size of embedded mediaasset 104 based on the layout. As previously mentioned, the mediaguidance application may retrieve information from the layout's datastructure. For example, the media guidance application may access thefirst entry of the layout {embedded media asset 1, 640p, 1080p, (500,540)}, in response to determining that embedded media asset 104corresponds to “Avengers Infinity War Trailer.” The display size of thevideo, based on the first entry, is 640×1080. The media guidanceapplication may then determine whether the display size of embeddedmedia asset 104 is greater than or equal to a threshold size. Thethreshold size may be predefined and retrievable from the memory offirst user equipment 102 (e.g., the user's smartphone). In someembodiments, the media guidance application may set the threshold sizeto be the display size of the largest embedded media asset that isvisible to the user on digital page 103 at a given time. Suppose thatthe threshold size is 500×500. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may convert the respective display sizes to respectiveareas. For example, the area of embedded media asset 104 may be 691,200pixels squared and the area of the threshold size may be 250,000 pixelssquared. In response to determining that the display size is greaterthan the threshold size (e.g., based on the respective areas), the mediaguidance application may determine that the user has navigated, ondigital page 103, to the position of embedded media asset 104. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the userintends to access “Avengers Infinity War Trailer” because the video isthe largest unobscured embedded media asset visible to the user ondigital page 103 at a given time.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of a scenario 200 for accessingmedia of an audio-based content type by outputting the media on a nearbydevice that is better suited for access, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. In scenario 200, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user has navigated to the position ofembedded media asset 204 (e.g., previously embedded media asset 106 ofFIG. 1) by first determining that the user is scrolling through theplurality of embedded media assets on digital page 203 (e.g., previouslydigital page 103 of FIG. 1). For example, the user may detect an input(e.g., touch, verbal, biometric response, etc.) requesting to navigateto a different position of digital page 203. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect that the user has made physical contactwith the touchscreen display of the user's smartphone and has made ascrolling motion (e.g., pressed upwards along the screen or flicked).The media guidance application may then detect that the user has stoppedscrolling at the position of embedded media asset 204. For example, theuser may stop scrolling (e.g., release the physical contact from thetouchscreen display) at the portion that contains the song “‘Hello’ byAdele,” as determined by the layout of the plurality of embedded mediaassets. The media guidance application may determine that the user hasstopped scrolling for a threshold period of time. For example, the mediaguidance application may monitor, using a timer, whether the user hasprovided further input to navigate on digital page 203. Suppose that theuser remains on the portion containing “‘Hello’ by Adele” for 10seconds. The media guidance application may continuously compare theamount of time the user remains on the portion with the threshold periodof time (e.g., 10 seconds). In response to determining that the user hasstopped scrolling for the threshold period of time (e.g., the amount oftime the user remains idle on the portion exceeds or equals thethreshold period of time), the media guidance application may determinethat the user has navigated, on digital page 203, to the position ofembedded media asset 204.

In some embodiments, wherein the content type is associated with audio(e.g., music, podcasts, radio, etc.), in response to identifying thesubset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type,the media guidance application may determine a maximum distance thatsound outputted from the respective candidate device can travel. Forexample, the media guidance application may identify the speakers ofsmartphone 202, portable tablet 206, laptop 208, television 214 andspeaker 210 as a subset of candidate devices that are compatible withaudio output. The media guidance application may determine, for eachcandidate device of the subset, the maximum volume (e.g., in decibels)and implement a decibels-to-distance algorithm that may be a function ofthe volume, the size of the speaker associated with the candidatedevice, the type of environment in which the candidate device is located(e.g., retrieved acoustic information), and/or the size of environment,in order to determine the maximum distance. Alternatively, the mediaguidance application may use a sound damping calculation that determinesthe decibel levels at a queried distance in proportion to the decibellevel at a known distance. In response to determining that the distancebetween the user and the respective candidate device is less than themaximum distance, the media guidance application may determine a soundscore of the respective candidate device, wherein the sound scorerepresents a quality of sound at a threshold volume. Suppose that themedia guidance application determines that the maximum distance thatsound can travel for each of the candidate devices at a given volume is5 meters. The media guidance application may only identify candidatedevices in the subset of candidate devices that are 5 meters away fromthe user. For example, the media guidance application may determine thatspeaker 210 is 3 meters away from the user, smartphone 202 is 0.2 metersaway, and all other candidate devices are 10 meters away. In response,the media guidance application may only determine the sound score ofspeaker 210 and smartphone 202. The quality of sound at a thresholdvolume (e.g., the maximum volume) may be assessed based on the candidatedevice's ability to reproduce an input sound without audible issues. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the quality ofsound for a certain device from a sound database that lists the soundscore the device. The sound score may be a quantitative (e.g., 1 out of10, 2 out of 10, etc.) or qualitative (e.g., “poor,” “below average,”“average,” etc.) measure of sound. In response to determining that thesound score of the candidate device of the subset of candidate devicesis the highest of sound scores of the subset of candidate devices, themedia guidance application may identify the candidate device as thesecond user equipment. For example, based on the information receivedfrom the sound database, the media guidance application may determinethat the sound score of speaker 210 is “excellent” and the sound scoreof smartphone 202 is “average.” Due to the higher score, the mediaguidance application may identify speaker 210 as the second userequipment.

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example 300 of a digital page and thelayout of a plurality of embedded media assets, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Suppose that the user is accessingdigital page 303 on his/her smartphone. Display 302 represents thedisplay area on which the user can view a section of digital page 303.For example, at any given time, display 302 may only be able to show adisplay area that is 1080 pixels wide and 1920 pixels long. On the otherhand, digital page 303 may be 1080 pixels wide and 3200 pixels long. Asa large portion of digital page 303 cannot be seen, the user will needto scroll down display 302 to access the non-visible portion of digitalpage 303. Suppose that the respective content types of embedded mediaassets, 304 (e.g., a photo of an advertisement), 308 (e.g., a trailer ofa movie) and 312 (e.g., a status update post) are associated with image,video, and text, respectively. The media guidance application, using themethods described previously, may determine that the best devices nearthe user to output the embedded media assets are frame 306, television310, and speaker 314, respectively.

Suppose that the user is accessing embedded media asset 304 on frame306. As can be seen in FIG. 3, embedded media asset 308 may only bepartially visible (e.g., obscured) in display 302. Thus, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine a layout ofthe plurality of embedded media assets, using the methods previouslydiscussed. Based on the layout, the media guidance application mayidentify embedded media asset 308. The media guidance application maythen determine whether the user will navigate to embedded media asset308 after accessing embedded media asset 304 by first determining, basedon the layout, that embedded media asset 308 is embedded on digital page303 near embedded media asset 304. In response to determining thatembedded media asset 308 is embedded near embedded media asset 304, themedia guidance application may determine whether an attribute ofembedded media asset 308 corresponds to an attribute in a user profileof the user. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat embedded media asset 308 is a trailer for the movie “AvengersInfinity War.” The media guidance application may determine an attributesuch as the type of media, the genre, the actors, the theme, thecharacters, the locations, etc., associated with embedded media asset308, and then determine whether the user's user profile includes theattribute. For example, the user profile may contain a viewing historythat includes several entries of media asset viewings associated withthe characters in embedded media asset 308. In response to determiningthat the attribute of embedded media asset 308 (e.g., the character“Captain America” in the trailer) corresponds to an attribute of theuser profile (e.g., the viewing history includes movies featuring thecharacter), the media guidance application may determine that the userwill navigate to embedded media asset 308 after embedded media asset304. In response to determining that the user will navigate to embeddedmedia asset 308 after embedded media asset 304, the media guidanceapplication may identify a third user equipment that can output embeddedmedia asset 308. The third user equipment may be identified using themethods described previously. Suppose that the media guidanceapplication identifies television 310. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may preload embedded media asset 308 at television 310, toautomatically output embedded media asset 308 when the user navigates toembedded media asset 308. The preloading (e.g., pre-caching) process mayallow the user to access an embedded media asset immediately afternavigating to the embedded media asset. This same process can also beapplied to preload a text-to-speech conversion of embedded media asset312 on speaker 314, while the user is accessing either embedded mediaasset 304 or 308. The determination of whether to preload an embeddedmedia asset on a third user equipment may also be based on the user'shistory of accessing digital pages on the first user equipment. Forexample, if the user tends to access digital pages for 30 minutes onaverage, the media guidance application may use the average time ofaccess and determine whether the user is about to exceed the averagetime during a session of access. If the user has exceeded the averagetime of access, the media guidance application may determine not topreload the respective embedded media assets on the third userequipment.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 4-5 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 4-5 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 4-5 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 4 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 400arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 400 may include grid 402 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 404, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 406, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 402 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 408, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 410. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 410 may be provided inprogram information region 412. Region 412 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 402 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 414, recorded content listing 416, andInternet content listing 418. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 400 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings414, 416, and 418 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 402 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 402. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 420. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 420.)

Display 400 may also include video region 422, and options region 426.Video region 422 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 422 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 402. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 426 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 426 may be part of display 400 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 426 may concern features related to program listings in grid 402or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 7. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 5. Video mosaic display 500 includes selectable options 502 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 500, television listings option 504 isselected, thus providing listings 506, 508, 510, and 512 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 500 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 508 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 514 and text portion 516.Media portion 514 and/or text portion 516 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 514 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 500 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 506 islarger than listings 508, 510, and 512), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 6 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 600. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 7.User equipment device 600 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 602. I/O path 602 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 604, which includesprocessing circuitry 606 and storage 608. Control circuitry 604 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 602. I/O path 602 may connect control circuitry 604 (andspecifically processing circuitry 606) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 604 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 606. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 604 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 608). Specifically, control circuitry 604 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 604 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 604 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 604 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above-mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 7). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 608 thatis part of control circuitry 604. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 608 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 7, may be used to supplementstorage 608 or instead of storage 608.

Control circuitry 604 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 604 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 600. Circuitry 604 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 608 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 600, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 608.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 604 using user inputinterface 610. User input interface 610 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 612 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600. For example, display 612 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 610may be integrated with or combined with display 612. Display 612 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 612 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 612 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 612.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry604. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 604.Speakers 614 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 612 may be played throughspeakers 614. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers614.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 600. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage608), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 604 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 608 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 604 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 610. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 610 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 600 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 600. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 604 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 604) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 600. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 600.Equipment device 600 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 610 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 600 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 610.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 600 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 604). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 604 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 604. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 604. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 600 of FIG. 6 can be implemented in system 700 ofFIG. 7 as user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704,wireless user communications device 706, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 6 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, or awireless user communications device 706. For example, user televisionequipment 702 may, like some user computer equipment 704, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 704 may, like some television equipment 702, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 704, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 706.

In system 700, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 7 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 702, user computer equipment 704, wireless user communicationsdevice 706) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 714.Namely, user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, andwireless user communications device 706 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 714 via communications paths 708, 710, and 712, respectively.Communications network 714 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 708, 710, and 712 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 712 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 7 it is awireless path and paths 708 and 710 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 708, 710, and 712, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 714.

System 700 includes content source 716 and media guidance data source718 coupled to communications network 714 via communication paths 720and 722, respectively. Paths 720 and 722 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 708, 710,and 712. Communications with the content source 716 and media guidancedata source 718 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 716 and 718 withuser equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 are shown as throughcommunications network 714, in some embodiments, sources 716 and 718 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 708, 710, and 712.

Content source 716 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 716 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 716 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 716 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 718 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 718may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 718 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 718 mayprovide user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 608, and executedby control circuitry 604 of a user equipment device 600. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 604 of user equipment device 600and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 718) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 718), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 718 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices702, 704, and 706 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 700 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 7.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 714.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 716 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 702 and user computer equipment 704may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 706 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 714. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 716 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 718. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and wirelessuser communications device 706. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 704 or wireless usercommunications device 706 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 704. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 714. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 6.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for enhancing userexperience in accessing media of a certain content type by outputtingthe media on a nearby device that is better suited for access, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be notedthat process 800 or any step thereof could be performed on, or providedby, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 6-7. For example, process 800 maybe executed by control circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may havethe functionality of any or all of user equipment 702, 704, and/or 706(FIG. 7)). In addition, one or more steps of process 800 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 9-17).Many elements of process 800 have been described above with respect toFIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and those descriptions have full force and effectwith respect to the below description of process 800, and thus detailson previously-described elements are omitted for the sake of brevity.

At 802, control circuitry 604 determines whether a user is accessing, onfirst user equipment (e.g., user television equipment 702, user computerequipment 704, wireless user equipment 706), a digital page comprising aplurality of embedded media assets. In response to determining that theuser is not accessing, on first user equipment, digital page 103comprising the plurality of embedded media assets, process 800 ends at804. In response to determining that the user is accessing, on firstuser equipment, digital page 103 comprising the plurality of embeddedmedia assets, at step 806, control circuitry 604 determines that theuser has navigated, on digital page 103, to a position of an embeddedmedia asset of the plurality of embedded media assets (e.g., via userinput interface 610). At 808, control circuitry 604 identifies a contenttype of the embedded media asset. At 810, control circuitry 604retrieves, from a data structure of access setting recommendations(e.g., in storage 608), a recommended device configuration for accessingthe content type. At 812, control circuitry 604 determines a firstdevice configuration of the first user equipment (e.g., based onprocessing circuitry 606 and storage 608). At 814, control circuitry 604determines a first access score based on similarities between therecommended device configuration and the first device configuration. At816, control circuitry 604 transmits a discovery message from the firstuser equipment (e.g., via I/O Path 602). At 818, control circuitry 604determines whether an acknowledgment message was received from seconduser equipment (e.g., over communications network 714). If noacknowledgment message was received, control circuitry 604 outputs theembedded media asset on first user equipment (e.g., using display 612and/or speakers 614) and process 800 ends at 804. If an acknowledgmentwas received, control circuitry 604 identifies second user equipment(e.g., user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704,wireless user equipment 706), at 820. At 822, control circuitry 604determines a second device configuration of the second user equipment(e.g., based on processing circuitry 606 and storage 608 of the seconduser equipment). At 824, control circuitry 604 determines a secondaccess score based on similarities between the recommended deviceconfiguration and the second device configuration. At 826, controlcircuitry 604 determines whether the second access score is greater thanor equal to the first access score. In response to determining that thesecond access score is not greater than or equal to the first accessscore, control circuitry 604 outputs the embedded media asset on thefirst user equipment and process 800 ends at 804. At 828, in response todetermining that the second access score is greater than or equal to thefirst access score, control circuitry 604 causes the second userequipment to output a copy of the embedded media asset (e.g., usingdisplay 612 and/or speakers 614 of the second user equipment).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining, based on focus regions, whether the user has navigated tothe position of the embedded media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 900 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 6-7. For example, process 900 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on user equipment 108 (which may have thefunctionality of any or all of user equipment 702, 704, and/or 706 (FIG.7)). In addition, one or more steps of process 900 may be incorporatedinto or combined with one or more steps of any other process orembodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 8 and 10-17). Manyelements of process 900 have been described above with respect to FIGS.1, 2, and 3, and those descriptions have full force and effect withrespect to the below description of process 900, and thus details onpreviously-described elements are omitted for the sake of brevity.

At 902, control circuitry 604 identifies a display configuration of thefirst user equipment (e.g., based on processing circuitry 606 andstorage 608). At 904, control circuitry 604 determines focus regions ofdisplay 612 of the first user equipment, based on the displayconfiguration. At 906, control circuitry 604 determines a layout of theplurality of embedded media assets on display 612. At 908, controlcircuitry 604 determines that the embedded media asset of the pluralityof embedded media assets is in a first portion of the layout. At 910,control circuitry 604 determines whether the first portion of the layoutcorresponds to a focus region of the first user equipment. In responseto determining that the first portion of the layout corresponds to afocus region, control circuitry 604 determines that the user hasnavigated, on digital page 103, to the position of the embedded mediaasset (e.g., using user input interface 610), at 912. In response todetermining that the first portion of the layout does not correspond toa focus region, control circuitry 604 determines that the user has notnavigated, on digital page 103, to the position of the embedded mediaasset, at 914.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining, based on display sizes of embedded media assets, whetherthe user has navigated to the position of the embedded media asset, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be notedthat process 1000 or any step thereof could be performed on, or providedby, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 6-7. For example, process 1000 maybe executed by control circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may havethe functionality of any or all of user equipment 702, 704, and/or 706(FIG. 7)). In addition, one or more steps of process 1000 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 8-9 and11-17). Many elements of process 1000 have been described above withrespect to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and those descriptions have full force andeffect with respect to the below description of process 1000, and thusdetails on previously-described elements are omitted for the sake ofbrevity.

At 1002, control circuitry 604 determines that the user is scrollingthrough the plurality of embedded media assets on digital page 103(e.g., using user input interface 610). At 1004, control circuitry 604determines, based on the layout, whether the embedded media asset isobscured on display 612. In response to determining that the embeddedmedia asset is not obscured, control circuitry 604 determines a displaysize of the embedded media asset based on the layout, at 1006. Inresponse to determining that the embedded media asset is obscured,control circuitry 604 determines that the user has not navigated, ondigital page 103, to the position of the embedded media asset, at 1012.At 1008, control circuitry 604 determines whether the display size ofthe embedded media asset is greater than a threshold size (e.g.,retrieved from storage 608). In response to determining that the displaysize is greater than the threshold size, control circuitry 604determines that the user has navigated, on digital page 103, to theposition of the embedded media asset, at 1010. Otherwise, controlcircuitry 604 determines that the user has not navigated, on digitalpage 103, to the position of the embedded media asset, at 1012.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining, based on the user's scrolling input, whether the user hasnavigated to the position of the embedded media asset, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process1100 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 6-7. For example, process 1100 may beexecuted by control circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may havethe functionality of any or all of user equipment 702, 704, and/or 706(FIG. 7)). In addition, one or more steps of process 1100 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 8-10 and12-17). Many elements of process 1100 have been described above withrespect to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and those descriptions have full force andeffect with respect to the below description of process 1100, and thusdetails on previously-described elements are omitted for the sake ofbrevity.

At 1102, control circuitry 604 determines a layout of the plurality ofembedded media assets with respect to display 612. At 1104, controlcircuitry 604 determines whether the user stopped scrolling at theposition of the embedded media asset (e.g., via user input interface610). In response to determining that the user stopped scrolling,control circuitry 604 determines whether the user stopped scrolling fora threshold period of time (e.g., retrieved from storage 608), at 1106.In response to determining that the user stopped scrolling for thethreshold period of time, control circuitry 604 determines that the userhas navigated, on digital page 103, to the position of the embeddedmedia asset. Otherwise, if control circuitry 604 determines the oppositeresult at 1104 or 1106, control circuitry 604 determines that the userhas not navigated, on digital page 103, to the position of the embeddedmedia asset at 1110.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process fordetermining, based on the user's scroll-back input, whether the user hasnavigated to the position of the embedded media asset, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process1200 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 6-7. For example, process 1200 may beexecuted by control circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may havethe functionality of any or all of user equipment 702, 704, and/or 706(FIG. 7)). In addition, one or more steps of process 1200 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 8-11 and13-17). Many elements of process 1200 have been described above withrespect to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and those descriptions have full force andeffect with respect to the below description of process 1200, and thusdetails on previously-described elements are omitted for the sake ofbrevity.

At 1202, control circuitry 604 determines that the user is scrolling ina first direction through the plurality of embedded media assets ondigital page 103 (e.g., via user input interface 610). At 1204, controlcircuitry 604 detects that the user scrolled past the embedded mediaasset. At 1206, control circuitry 604 determines whether the userstarted scrolling in a second direction towards the embedded media asset(e.g., via user input interface 610). If yes, control circuitry 604determines whether the user stopped scrolling at the position of theembedded media asset, at 1208. If yes, control circuitry 604 determinesthat the user has navigated, on digital page 103, to the position of theembedded media asset, at 1210. If at 1206 or 1208, the result is “no,”control circuitry 604 determines that the user has not navigated, ondigital page 103, to the position of the embedded media asset, at 1212.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process foridentifying, based on the proximities of a plurality of candidatedevices, the second user equipment, in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1300 or any stepthereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shownin FIGS. 6-7. For example, process 1300 may be executed by controlcircuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by a media guidance applicationimplemented on user equipment 108 (which may have the functionality ofany or all of user equipment 702, 704, and/or 706 (FIG. 7)). Inaddition, one or more steps of process 1300 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment(e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 8-12 and 14-17). Many elementsof process 1300 have been described above with respect to FIGS. 1, 2,and 3, and those descriptions have full force and effect with respect tothe below description of process 1300, and thus details onpreviously-described elements are omitted for the sake of brevity.

At 1302, control circuitry 604 receives acknowledgment messages from aplurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message (e.g.,received via I/O Path 602 over communications network 714). At 1304,control circuitry 604 identifies, from the plurality of candidatedevices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with thecontent type of the embedded media asset. At 1306, control circuitry 604identifies a candidate device of the subset of candidate devices. At1308, control circuitry 604 determines, for the candidate device, aproximity to the user. At 1310, control circuitry 604 determines whetherthe proximity of the candidate device is less than a threshold proximity(e.g., retrieved from storage 608). If yes, at 1312, control circuitry604 identifies the candidate device as the second user equipment. If no,at 1314, control circuitry 604 determines whether there is a differentcandidate device in the subset of candidate devices whose proximity hasnot been compared with the threshold proximity. If yes, process 1300returns to 1306. If no, the process ends at 1316.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for identifying, basedon the user's line of sight, the second user equipment, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process1400 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 6-7. For example, process 1400 may beexecuted by control circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by a mediaguidance application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may havethe functionality of any or all of user equipment 702, 704, and/or 706(FIG. 7)). In addition, one or more steps of process 1400 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 8-13 and15-17). Many elements of process 1400 have been described above withrespect to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and those descriptions have full force andeffect with respect to the below description of process 1400, and thusdetails on previously-described elements are omitted for the sake ofbrevity.

At 1402, control circuitry 604 receives acknowledgment messages from aplurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message (e.g.,received via I/O Path 602 over communications network 714). At 1404,control circuitry 604 identifies, from the plurality of candidatedevices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with thecontent type of the embedded media asset. At 1406, control circuitry 604identifies a candidate device of the subset of candidate devices. At1408, control circuitry 604 determines, for the candidate device, anorientation of a display of the respective candidate device with respectto the user. At 1410, based on the orientation of the display, controlcircuitry 604 determines whether the display of the respective candidatedevice is within a line of sight of the user. If yes, at 1412, controlcircuitry 604 determines a perceived display size of the respectivecandidate device, wherein the perceived display size is proportional to(1) a physical display size of the respective candidate device and (2)the distance between the user and the respective candidate device. If“no” and/or in response to 1412, control circuitry 604 determineswhether there is a different candidate device in the subset of candidatedevices whose display orientation has not been compared with the line ofsight. If yes, process 1400 returns to 1406. If no, control circuitry604 identifies the respective candidate device with largest determinedperceived display size, as the second user equipment, at 1416.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process foridentifying, based on the user's field of view, the second userequipment, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Itshould be noted that process 1500 or any step thereof could be performedon, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 6-7. For example,process 1500 may be executed by control circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) asinstructed by a media guidance application implemented on user equipment108 (which may have the functionality of any or all of user equipment702, 704, and/or 706 (FIG. 7)). In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1500 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation toFIGS. 8-14 and 16-17). Many elements of process 1500 have been describedabove with respect to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and those descriptions havefull force and effect with respect to the below description of process1500, and thus details on previously-described elements are omitted forthe sake of brevity.

At 1502, control circuitry 604 determines, based on a position of theuser, a field of view of the user. At 1504, control circuitry 604determines a position of the respective candidate device with respect tothe position of the user. At 1506, control circuitry 604 determineswhether the display of the respective candidate device is within thefield of view of the user. If yes, control circuitry 604 determines thatthe display of the respective candidate device is within the line ofsight of the user, at 1508. If no, control circuitry 604 determines thatthe display of the respective candidate device is not within the line ofsight of the user.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process foridentifying, based on the sound scores of the plurality of candidatedevices, the second user equipment, in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1600 or any stepthereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shownin FIGS. 6-7. For example, process 1600 may be executed by controlcircuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by a media guidance applicationimplemented on user equipment 108 (which may have the functionality ofany or all of user equipment 702, 704, and/or 706 (FIG. 7)). Inaddition, one or more steps of process 1600 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment(e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 8-15 and 17). Many elements ofprocess 1600 have been described above with respect to FIGS. 1, 2, and3, and those descriptions have full force and effect with respect to thebelow description of process 1600, and thus details onpreviously-described elements are omitted for the sake of brevity.

At 1602, control circuitry 604 receives acknowledgment messages from aplurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message (e.g.,received via I/O Path 602 over communications network 714). At 1604,control circuitry 604 identifies, from the plurality of candidatedevices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with thecontent type of the embedded media asset. At 1606, control circuitry 604identifies a candidate device of the subset of candidate devices. At1608, control circuitry 604 determines, for the candidate device, amaximum distance that sound outputted from the candidate device cantravel. At 1610, control circuitry 604 determines whether the distancebetween the user and the candidate device is less than the maximumdistance. If yes, control circuitry 604 determines a sound score of thecandidate device, wherein the sound score represents a quality of soundat a threshold volume (e.g., retrieved from storage 608). If “no” and/orin response to 1612, control circuitry 604 determines whether there is adifferent candidate device in the subset of candidate devices whosemaximum distance has not been compared with the distance between theuser and the candidate device, at 1614. If yes, process 1600 returns to1606. If no, control circuitry 604 identifies the candidate device withthe highest determined sound score as the second user equipment, at1616.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process foridentifying a combination of candidate devices as the second userequipment, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Itshould be noted that process 1700 or any step thereof could be performedon, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 6-7. For example,process 1700 may be executed by control circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) asinstructed by a media guidance application implemented on user equipment108 (which may have the functionality of any or all of user equipment702, 704, and/or 706 (FIG. 7)). In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 1700 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation toFIGS. 8-16). Many elements of process 1700 have been described abovewith respect to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and those descriptions have fullforce and effect with respect to the below description of process 1700,and thus details on previously-described elements are omitted for thesake of brevity.

At 1702, control circuitry 604 receives acknowledgment messages from aplurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message (e.g.,received via I/O Path 602 over communications network 714). At 1704,control circuitry 604 identifies, from the plurality of candidatedevices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with thecontent type of the embedded media asset. At 1706, control circuitry 604determines that a first candidate device of the subset of candidatedevices has the biggest perceived display size. At 1708, controlcircuitry 604 determines that a second candidate device of the subset ofcandidate devices has the highest sound score. At 1710, controlcircuitry 604 determines whether the first candidate device and thesecond candidate device are the same device. If the respective devicesare not the same, control circuitry 604 identifies the second userequipment as a combination of the first candidate device for visuals andthe second candidate device for audio. If yes, control circuitry 604identifies the second user equipment as either the first candidatedevice or the second candidate device.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 7-19may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition,the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 8-17 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed inany order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lagor increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should benoted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 6-7 could be used to perform one or more of the stepsin FIGS. 8-17.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or arandom-access memory, such as a hard drive device or a computerdiskette, having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. Itshould also be understood that methods, techniques, and processesinvolved in the present disclosure may be executed using processingcircuitry.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to“convention,” any such reference is merely for the purpose of providingcontext to the invention(s) of the instant disclosure, and does not formany admission as to what constitutes the state of the art.

1. A method for enhancing user experience in accessing media of a certain content type by outputting the media on a nearby device that is better suited for access, the method comprising: determining that a user is accessing, on first user equipment, a digital page comprising a plurality of embedded media assets; determining that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to a position of an embedded media asset of the plurality of embedded media assets; and in response to determining that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset: identifying a content type of the embedded media asset; retrieving, from a data structure of access setting recommendations, a recommended device configuration for accessing the content type; determining a first device configuration of the first user equipment; determining a first access score based on similarities between the recommended device configuration and the first device configuration; transmitting a discovery message from the first user equipment; in response to transmitting the discovery message, identifying second user equipment; determining a second device configuration of the second user equipment; determining a second access score based on similarities between the recommended device configuration and the second device configuration; determining whether the second access score is greater than the first access score; and in response to determining that the second access score is greater than the first access score, causing the second user equipment to output a copy of the embedded media asset. 2-3. (canceled)
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset further comprises: determining that the user is scrolling through the plurality of embedded media assets on the digital page; detecting that the user has stopped scrolling at the position of the embedded media asset; determining that the user has stopped scrolling for a threshold period of time; and in response to determining that the user has stopped scrolling for the threshold period of time, determining that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset further comprises: determining that the user is scrolling in a first direction through the plurality of embedded media assets on the digital page; detecting that the user scrolled past the embedded media asset; subsequent to detecting that the user scrolled past the embedded media asset, determining that the user is scrolling in a second direction, wherein the second direction is towards the embedded media asset; determining that the user has stopped scrolling at the position of the embedded media asset; and in response to determining that the user stopped scrolling at the position of the embedded media asset, determining that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the second user equipment further comprises: receiving acknowledgment messages from a plurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message; identifying, from the plurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type of the embedded media asset; for each candidate device of the subset of candidate devices, determining a proximity to the user; in response to determining that the proximity to the user of a respective candidate device is less than a threshold proximity, identifying the respective candidate device as the second user equipment.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the content type is associated with visuals, wherein identifying the second user equipment further comprises: receiving acknowledgment messages from a plurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message; identifying, from the plurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type of the embedded media asset; for each candidate device of the subset of candidate devices: determining an orientation of a display of the respective candidate device with respect to the user; determining whether the display of the respective candidate device is within a line of sight of the user, based on the orientation of the display; and in response to determining that the display of the respective candidate device is within the line of sight of the user, determining a perceived display size of the respective candidate device, wherein the perceived display size is proportional to (1) a physical display size of the respective candidate device and (2) the distance between the user and the respective candidate device; and in response to determining that the determined perceived display size of the second user equipment device of the subset of candidate devices is the largest of perceived display sizes of the subset of candidate devices, identifying the second user equipment.
 8. (canceled)
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the content type is associated with audio, wherein identifying the second user equipment further comprises: receiving acknowledgment messages from a plurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message; identifying, from the plurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type of the embedded media asset; for each candidate device of the subset of candidate devices: determining a maximum distance that sound outputted from the respective candidate device can travel; and in response to determining that the distance between the user and the respective candidate device is less than the maximum distance, determining a sound score of the respective candidate device, wherein the sound score represents a quality of sound at a threshold volume; and in response to determining that the sound score of the second user equipment device of the subset of candidate devices is the highest of sound scores of the subset of candidate devices, identifying the second user equipment.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the content type is associated with audio and visuals, and wherein identifying the second user equipment further comprises: receiving acknowledgment messages from a plurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message; identifying, from the plurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type of the embedded media asset; determining that a first candidate device of the subset of candidate devices has a perceived display size that is greater than a threshold size; determining that a second candidate device, different from the first candidate device, of the subset of candidate devices has a sound score that is greater than a sound threshold; in response to determining that (1) the first candidate device has the perceived display size that is greater than the threshold size and (2) the second candidate device has the sound score that is greater than the sound threshold, identifying the second user equipment as a combination of the first candidate device for visuals and the second candidate device for audio.
 11. A system for enhancing user experience in accessing media of a certain content type by outputting the media on a nearby device that is better suited for access, the system comprising: control circuitry configured to: determine that a user is accessing, on first user equipment, a digital page comprising a plurality of embedded media assets; determine that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to a position of an embedded media asset of the plurality of embedded media assets; and in response to determining that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset: identify a content type of the embedded media asset; retrieve, from a data structure of access setting recommendations, a recommended device configuration for accessing the content type; determine a first device configuration of the first user equipment; determine a first access score based on similarities between the recommended device configuration and the first device configuration; transmit a discovery message from the first user equipment; in response to transmitting the discovery message, identify second user equipment; determine a second device configuration of the second user equipment; determine a second access score based on similarities between the recommended device configuration and the second device configuration; determine whether the second access score is greater than the first access score; and in response to determining that the second access score is greater than the first access score, cause the second user equipment to output a copy of the embedded media asset. 12-13. (canceled)
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry, when determining that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset, is further configured to: determine that the user is scrolling through the plurality of embedded media assets on the digital page; detect that the user has stopped scrolling at the position of the embedded media asset; determine that the user has stopped scrolling for a threshold period of time; and in response to determining that the user has stopped scrolling for the threshold period of time, determine that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry, when determining that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset, is further configured to: determine that the user is scrolling in a first direction through the plurality of embedded media assets on the digital page; detect that the user scrolled past the embedded media asset; subsequent to detecting that the user scrolled past the embedded media asset, determine that the user is scrolling in a second direction, wherein the second direction is towards the embedded media asset; determine that the user has stopped scrolling at the position of the embedded media asset; and in response to determining that the user stopped scrolling at the position of the embedded media asset, determine that the user has navigated, on the digital page, to the position of the embedded media asset.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry, when identifying the second user equipment, is further configured to: receive acknowledgment messages from a plurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message; identify, from the plurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type of the embedded media asset; for each candidate device of the subset of candidate devices, determine a proximity to the user; in response to determining that the proximity to the user of a respective candidate device is less than a threshold proximity, identify the respective candidate device as the second user equipment.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein the content type is associated with visuals, wherein the control circuitry, when identifying the second user equipment, is further configured to: receive acknowledgment messages from a plurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message; identify, from the plurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type of the embedded media asset; for each candidate device of the subset of candidate devices: determine an orientation of a display of the respective candidate device with respect to the user; determine whether the display of the respective candidate device is within a line of sight of the user, based on the orientation of the display; and in response to determining that the display of the respective candidate device is within the line of sight of the user, determine a perceived display size of the respective candidate device, wherein the perceived display size is proportional to (1) a physical display size of the respective candidate device and (2) the distance between the user and the respective candidate device; and in response to determining that the determined perceived display size of the second user equipment device of the subset of candidate devices is the largest of perceived display sizes of the subset of candidate devices, identify the second user equipment.
 18. (canceled)
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein the content type is associated with audio, wherein the control circuitry, when identifying the second user equipment, is further configured to: receive acknowledgment messages from a plurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message; identify, from the plurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type of the embedded media asset; for each candidate device of the subset of candidate devices: determine a maximum distance that sound outputted from the respective candidate device can travel; and in response to determining that the distance between the user and the respective candidate device is less than the maximum distance, determine a sound score of the respective candidate device, wherein the sound score represents a quality of sound at a threshold volume; and in response to determining that the sound score of the second user equipment device of the subset of candidate devices is the highest of sound scores of the subset of candidate devices, identify the second user equipment.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein the content type is associated with audio and visuals, and wherein the control circuitry, when identifying the second user equipment, is further configured to: receive acknowledgment messages from a plurality of candidate devices, based on the discovery message; identify, from the plurality of candidate devices, a subset of candidate devices that are compatible with the content type of the embedded media asset; determine that a first candidate device of the subset of candidate devices has a perceived display size that is greater than a threshold size; determine that a second candidate device, different from the first candidate device, of the subset of candidate devices has a sound score that is greater than a sound threshold; and in response to determining that (1) the first candidate device has the perceived display size that is greater than the threshold size and (2) the second candidate device has the sound score that is greater than the sound threshold, identify the second user equipment as a combination of the first candidate device for visuals and the second candidate device for audio. 21-50. (canceled)
 51. A method comprising: determining that a first device is generating for display a digital page, wherein the digital page comprises a link to a video from a content provider; and in response to determining that the digital page comprises the link to the video from the content provider: transmitting a discovery message via a local network of the first device to discover a second device that is within a proximity of the first device; receiving a reply comprising data about the second device; and determining, based on the received data about the second device, that the second device is preferred for playing the video: in response to determining, based on the received data about the second device, that the second device is preferable for playing the video: causing the second device to generate for display the video from the content provider by accessing the link to the video.
 52. The method of claim 51, wherein determining, based on the received data about the second device, that the second device is preferable for playing the video comprises: receiving data about the first device; identifying a characteristic of the video; computing a first metric based on the characteristic of the video and the data about the first device; computing a second metric based on the characteristic of the video and the data about the second device; and determining that the second device is preferable for playing the video over the first device when the second metric exceeds the first metric.
 53. The method of claim 51, wherein the reply is a first reply, and wherein determining, based on the received data about the second device, that the second device is preferable for playing the video comprises: receiving a second reply comprising data about a third device; determining, based on the data about the third device, that the third device is incompatible with the video; determining, based on the data about the second device, that the second device is compatible with the video; and in response to determining that the third device is incompatible with the video and that the second device is compatible with the video, determining that the second device is preferable for playing the video over the third device.
 54. The method of claim 51, wherein the data about the second device comprises one of a device identifier of the second device, a type of the second device, a display resolution of the second device, a display size of the second device, an audio capability of the second device, a network capability of the second device, and a user profile associated with the second device.
 55. The method of claim 51, wherein causing the second device to generate for display the video from the content provider by accessing the link to the video comprises causing the video to be transmitted from the content provider to the second device.
 56. The method of claim 51, wherein determining that the digital page comprises the link to the video from the content provider comprises: detecting a position in the digital page comprising the link to the video from the content provider; and detecting when a user scrolls to the position in the digital page. 